


Let Me Crash My Kart Into Your Heart

by asianhero



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Anxious Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Awkward Connor (Detroit: Become Human), F/M, M/M, Mario Kart, Markus is a sore loser, Minor North/Upgraded Connor | RK900, is he ok, why is there a tag for anxious connor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 13:17:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16724142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asianhero/pseuds/asianhero
Summary: After being away at college for four years, Connor's finally back in Detroit. Rather than moving back in with his dad, he decides to find an apartment for himself. Of course, it's just his luck that he happens to have a cute neighbor, and on the first day, proceeds to unintentionally act like a jerk. After getting invited to the buildings weekly Mario Kart tournament, will Connor finally show his neighbor that he's actually a good guy, or will he freeze under pressure and decide to not go?





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> hello! if you're coming from my tumblr then welcome back! if you're new here, i hope you enjoy the fic

Connor wasn’t a stranger to the cold air of Detroit, so when he first stepped out of the airport and into the city, he welcomed the chilly wind that nipped at his nose. He almost forgot how comforting the cold could be, and how warm it was to be back with his family. Looking down the street, he noticed a sign being waved around erratically by two people; one seemingly bored while the other was bouncing around with enthusiasm. Taking a closer look at the pair, he noticed how strikingly similar they looked, although the less enthusiastic one was taller. Blinking a couple of times, Connor made sure that he wasn’t seeing things. As soon as he confirmed what he was seeing, he sighed, walking over to the pair, each step causing him more exasperation than the next. Once he was right in front of him, Connor raised an eyebrow at the two’s actions.

“What are you doing?”

The shorter one smiled at him, wrapping him in a bone-crushing hug. “Connor! Welcome back!”

Connor heard a couple of cracks coming from his back. Slapping the man on his back, he wheezed. “Curtis, _please stop_.”

Curtis pulled away, sending an apologetic smiled towards him. “I’m just too excited!” He pointed towards the taller one, a look of disgust on his face, “You try to live with this guy for two years.”

The other one looked down at Curtis before wrapping his arm around his neck and pulling him into a headlock. Curtis struggled to get free while Connor laughed at the pair’s antics.

“Nines, Nines, okay I get it! Stop! I was just kidding!”

Curtis’ begging didn’t seem to tame Nines, as he continued to crush the other’s neck with his forearm. He probably would’ve done some damage too, if it weren't for his father slapping the back of Nines’ head.

“Conan, that’s enough. You might actually bust his head open,”

Nines reluctantly released Curtis, who moved to hide behind Connor. Looking at his father, Connor smiled.

“Hey dad,”

Hank smiled at him, nodding his head. “C’mon, we’re here to take you to your apartment. Can’t take all day,”

The three boys walked over towards Hank’s car, not waiting for Connor or helping him with his bags. He huffed, glaring at the two. 

“I’ve been gone for four years and this is the treatment I get?”

Nines turned around to look at him, then walked over to pick up the lightest bag possible, and carried it with him to the car. Connor looked at him with an unamused expression. Moving to pick up the rest of his luggage, Connor quickly grabbed the two suitcases and walked towards the car. Once he was inside, he watched as Hank started the car and merged into traffic, listening to his brother’s argue in the background. Connor was glad to be home.

* * *

 

The ride to his apartment was uneventful, with the only exception being when Nines and Curtis were arguing about some trivial things, like whether or not snow was a good thing. Connor had to hold in his laughter as Hank scolded the two of them, saying that it didn’t matter whether or not they like snow, because “it’s gonna fucking happen anyway.”

Once they reached Connor’s apartment, Nines went to help him with some of the boxes from his old place, carrying three at a time, much to Connor’s distaste.

“You’re going to drop my things and then I’ll have broken furniture, is that what you want?”

“You doubt my balance?”

“Absolutely.”

Nines scoffed, handing one of the boxes to Curtis, who didn’t seem happy to help. Honestly, Connor was shocked that Curtis didn’t retaliate, as he simply walked off to place the box down in his apartment.

As soon as the four of them were done unloading all of Connor’s things, they began to help open and unpack all of his things. Connor smiled, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You know I can handle the rest, right?”

Hank snorted, pulling out his pocket knife to open the box. “God forbid me hanging out with my kid for a while. It’s not like I haven’t seen him in four years,”

Connor raised his hands in defense, laughing lightly. “Okay, point taken.”

They all worked in silence for a while, talking occasionally about how life was and what they’ve been doing for the past few years. Connor was so entrapped in unpacking his things that he didn’t hear the knock at the door. A few seconds passed, and another knock sounded across the room, slightly louder than before. Nines looked at Connor, his eyebrow raised.

“Are you going to get that?”

Connor looked up, seemingly out of his trance. Standing up from the pile of boxes, he walked towards the door, opening it.

Standing in front of him was an impossibly attractive man. Just him standing there was meeting every single one of Connor’s standards. But what stood out to him was his mismatched eyes, blue and green giving off a warm energy. Clearing his throat, Connor looked away from him.

“Can I help you?”

The man smiled cheerfully. “Hey, I saw you moving some boxes in and I wanted to introduce myself,” He extended his hand out to him, “I’m Markus, I live next door.”

It took Connor an embarrassing amount of time to remember to shake his hand. When he did, he noticed that he must’ve gripped Markus’ hand too hard, as the other man winced slightly, before his smile came back. Connor could just _feel_ the awkward air surrounding them, almost suffocating him. Looking at the man, he tilted his head.

“Is there anything else?”

Markus seemed to be taken aback by that question, as a look of shock flashed across his face. Plastering a smile on his face, he shook his head. “No, I just wanted to stop by and say ‘hi,’ so I guess that’s it,”

With that, Markus waved goodbye and moved to his own apartment next door, promptly opening it and shutting it close. When he was gone, Connor closed his own door, only to be accompanied with howling laughter. Turning towards the source of the noise, he glared at Hank, who was currently bent over laughing.

“Why are you laughing?”

Hank looked up at him, trying to calm his laughter but failing. “You should’ve seen your face, Con. Oh my god,” he wheezed before finishing, “It was the best thing I’ve seen all week.”

Connor scowled at his father, crossing his arms. “It wasn’t funny,”

Curtis looked up from his pile of boxes, a grin forming on his face. “Your cute neighbor said ‘nice to meet you,’ and you said ‘is there anything else?’ You didn’t even say ‘hi.’”

Connor groaned, hiding his face in his hands, wanting to escape from this embarrassment. “Ohmy god what’s wrong with me?”

Nines snorted, not bothering to look up from his pile. “You’re a gay disaster,”

Connor glared at him, walking towards his set of boxes. He could hear Hank practically dying at Nines’ accusation. 

“C’mon, don’t make fun of your brother just because he can’t talk to guys,”

He snapped his head towards his father, who was currently regaining all of the air lost form his laughing fit. “It’s not funny. I just moved in and made a bad impression with my neighbor,” Sighing, he flopped on the floor, “He probably thinks I’m a terrible person.”

Nines looked over at him, shrugging his shoulders. “To be fair, you did glare at him the entire time.”

Connor sat up immediately, a small crack emanating from his back from the pure force of it. “I did not.”

Curtis nodded, walking over towards the three of them. “Yes, you did. You looked like he just told you that he killed Sumo.”

Connor felt his eyes widen slightly. Whining, he threw himself back onto the floor, rubbing his face with his hands. “That’s it. I need to move.”

Hank rolled his eyes at his sons overdramatic act. “Calm down, just try talking to him tomorrow. Now get up and open the rest of these boxes, you need to start building your furniture.”

Connor sighed, sitting back up. Looking towards the door to his apartment, he felt embarrassment kick in.

_This was going to be interesting._


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm glad that this fic is being well received!  
> also "sue me" by sabrina carpenter is a bop and i love

Two days later and Connor was happy to say that his apartment was finally finished. Begrudgingly, his brother’s came back to help him build his furniture, which he was grateful for. Together, they finally put together the last piece of furniture, a cheap coffee table, and set it right in front of his couch.

Now here he was, sitting on his couch, lazily responding to his brothers who, bless them, were starting to get on his nerves.

**[Triplets]**

**Curt, 2:32pm:** “hey i’m your new neighbor, markus”

**Nines, 2:33pm:** “And?”

**Curt, 2:35pm:** “i just wanted to say ‘hello’”

**Nines, 2:37pm:** “Go away.”

**Me, 2:40pm:** I hate you both

**Curt, 2:43pm:** “i’m connor, and i’m such a disaster that i couldn’t tell my cute neighbor ‘hi’”

**Nines, 2:46pm:** “Look at me I’m so socially inept that I can’t talk to boys.”

**Me, 2:47pm:** Why must you do this to me I’ve done nothing to you

**Curt, 2:49pm:** have you talked to him yet?

**Me, 2:51pm:** No why would I?

**Nines, 2:55pm:** Oh my god you walking disaster go and talk to him. It’s not that hard.

Just as Connor was about to reply, he heard a knock at his door. Silently praying that it wasn’t Markus, he walked over, opening the door slightly. Peering out he noticed that no one was there. Opening the door further, he looked side to side, before a piece of paper caught his eye. Connor peeled the flyer off of his door and examined it, squinting at the obscenely bright colors. Plastered on the paper was the Mario Kart logo, along with the words: _“Come and join us for our weekly gaming tournament! This week: Mario Kart.”_

Connor sighed, closing the door behind him. Taking one last look at the flyer, he tossed it in the garbage bin, moving to grab a drink from the fridge. He didn’t even take two steps forward when he heard a knock at his door again, along with some whispering:

_“I could’ve sworn that I put up a flyer here,”_

_“He probably saw it, he just doesn’t want to go.”_

_“Shut up Markus and go grab some more tape,”_

Walking back over to his door, Connor flung the door open, an almost amused look on his face. “Hello?”

Standing in front of him was a young woman. She had long auburn hair that was kept in a braid, and dark brown eyes that seemed to be looking through Connor. Shifting uncomfortably, Connor gave the woman an awkward smile, along with a small wave.

“Hello? How can I help you?”

The woman looked him up and down before smirking, extending her hand. “Hey, I’m North.”

Connor internally groaned, suddenly remembering the first interaction he had with Markus. Gently, he shook her hand, the awkward smile still stuck on his face. Looking down at her, he noticed her arms were full of the same flyer that appeared earlier on his door. Pointing at it, he raised an eyebrow.

“Did you, did you leave this on my door?”

She followed his eyes down to her arms, nodding her head. “So you _did_ get one. I thought I missed this door,”

He nodded his head as well, a confused look appearing on his face. “Can I ask _why_ you left it?”

She looked at him, clearly unamused. Placing one hand on her hip she sighed, shaking her head. “Did you _not_ read the flyer?”

“I did. That’s why I’m asking why you left it.”

North closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before responding. “Because we invite _everyone_ on this floor to it,” She motioned towards the apartment next door, “Markus is hosting it this time and he told us that you just moved in.”

She shoved a flyer in his face, smirking when Connor reached out to grab it. “Just make sure you show up. It’s on Friday at six,” North pointed a finger at him, “Be there.”

With that, she walked away, humming as she put up more flyers on every door. A confused look found its way onto Connor’s face. Shrugging his shoulders, he closed the door, again, tossing the flyer into the garbage. Moving towards the couch, he flopped down, opening his phone to the onslaught of messages from his obnoxious brothers.

* * *

 

“I don’t know why you gave him one, he’s not gonna show up,” Markus said, shoving North’s legs off of the couch to make room.

It had been four hours since North had talked to Connor about the Mario Kart tournament. In those few hours, Markus had been steadily complaining about how his really cute neighbor was a jerk and didn’t even say “hi.” 

She looked up at him, squinting her eyes. “You don’t know that.”

Markus rolled his eyes, sinking into the couch. “He didn’t even tell me his name. All he said was—“

_“Is there anything else?”_ North mocked, a grin forming on her lips.

Markus glared at her, hitting her legs with a pillow. She giggled, kicking him in the side lightly to gain his attention.

“Hey, maybe he’s just shy. You can’t just judge him from one interaction,”

He snorted, crossing his arms while huffing. “That’s gold coming from you,”

North gasped, placing a hand on her chest. She pulled her legs back, standing up and moving over towards the door. Markus raised an eyebrow, wary of her actions. “Hey, where are you going?”

She quickly put on her shoes, a devilish grin settled onto her features. “I’m gonna force him to come over and hang out with us,”

Markus couldn’t even respond before North shut the door behind her, already heading over to Connor’s apartment. It took a couple of knocks and a few minutes for the door to be opened, revealing a confused Connor.

“Please don’t tell me you’re here to give me another flyer.” He joked, although his awkward smile never quite reached his eyes.

North shook her head, instead of speaking she opted to shove her way in, leaving Connor in an even more confused state. Once she was inside Connor had closed the door, his eyebrows knitting together at her actions.

“Welcome in?”

“Thank you,” North replied, moving to flop down on his couch. 

Connor just stared at her, then back at his door, then back at her. Deciding to not push it, he decided to go and grab a bottle of water for her. Walking over to her, he handed the bottle over with a smile on his face. North looked up at him, grinning as she took it.

“I don’t know why Markus thinks you’re rude, you seem pretty nice,”

“He thinks I’m rude?” Connor inquired, his expression faltering a bit.

When North saw the crestfallen look on his face, she immediately shifted gears, shaking her head rapidly. “No! Well, _yeah_ , but that’s just because he’s only talked to you once.”

He looks warily at her. “ _You’ve_ only talked to me once,”

“No, I talked to you earlier, when you kept asking me why I left that flyer on your door,” She looked around, “By the way, where is it?”

Connor felt himself freeze. Looking cautiously at the garbage bin, he smiled sheepishly at North, who followed his eyes towards the piece of paper. Gasping, she rushed over towards the bin, pulling out both flyers. Whipping her head around, she pointed an accusing finger at him.

“Why’d you throw them away? I thought you were going!”

Connor rubbed the back of his neck, shrugging his shoulders. “I never said I _was_ , you just implied it.”

She glared at him, walking back over towards the couch. “Normally, I’d beat you up. But because we’re best friends now, I’ll let it slide.”

He looked at her quizzically, tilting his head slightly. “Best friends?”

She nodded her head, smirking. “I mean, you let me in your house and you aren’t glaring at me. So yes, we’re best friends now,”

Connor felt the corners of his lips twitch, almost forming a smile. “Last I recall, you _shoved_ your way into my apartment.”

She waved her hand, dismissing the idea. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop trying to change the subject,” Without warning, she smacked the flyer gently onto his face, “Are you going on Friday or not?”

He snatched the paper from her hands, mumbling under his breath about how pushy she was. Taking another look at the paper he sighed, setting it down on the coffee table. “No, why would I?”

North huffed, crossing her arms petulantly, almost reminiscent of a little kid. “What’s the harm in going? It’s not like any of us are actually _good,_ ”

Connor looked over at her, a blank look on his face. “Didn’t you say Markus is hosting it? Doesn’t he think I’m _rude_?”

She wrapped her arm around his neck, looking at him straight in the eyes. “So? Now’s your chance to redo your first impression!”

He blinked, an eyebrow raising in amusement. “I don’t think it’s possible to redo a first impression. The phrase even has the word _first_ in it,”

She shushed him, not bothering to argue with him. “You know what I mean. You can show him that you’re not a total asshole,”

Connor’s eyes widened in surprise. His hand flew to his chest in mock offense. “How _dare_ you. I thought we were friends.”

North laughed, shoving his shoulder slightly. Surprisingly, Connor felt comfortable around her. Although from a first glance she seems brash and violent, which were both proven to be true, she still had a comforting aura around her. It felt as if they’d been friends for years, which was something that Connor never really thought of.

Pulling him out of his thoughts, North cleared her throat, beginning to walk over to the door. Pointing a finger at him, she glared playfully.

“Friday. At six. I’m picking you up so I _know_ that you’re coming.”

With that, she quickly left, leaving Connor to fall back onto the couch. He rubbed his face with his hands. _How was he supposed to go? He’s pretty sure that Markus thinks he’s the biggest douche._

Before Connor could go off on a tangent, he heard his door open. Looking up, he saw North’s head.

“Don’t overthink it! It’ll be fine!”

She closed the door again, only to open it a second later.

“Also _lock your door!_ There’s a lot of creeps that live here,”

She narrowly dodged the pillow that Connor threw at her, giggling the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> north and connor would be best friends and you can fight me on this. comments are appreciated :)


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao sorry for not updating! it's not like i was busy, i just got writer's block so i couldn't will myself to write  
> anyways, i'm glad you guys are enjoying it so far!

“North I can’t do this.”

“Yes you can!”

“I literally cannot do this. I’m going to be such a mess.”

“Well, you’ve always been a disaster, so it’s not like that could’ve been prevented. You just need to be more— oh hey look where we are now,”

Connor was so distracted with his inner turmoil that he didn’t notice North steering him in the direction of Markus’ apartment, which wasn’t that far, noting that they’re neighbors. Honestly, after North had left his apartment two days ago, he was having a hard time keeping calm. He tried different methods of relaxing; he tried taking a walk, napping, even listening to those “relaxation” mixes on YouTube, but nothing seemed to work. When North knocked at his door he pretended to be sick, hoping that she’d fall for it and he wouldn’t have to go. Unfortunately for him, she was planning on dragging him to Markus’ whether he was sick or not.

North’s loud knocking on Markus’ door pulled Connor out of his thoughts. He felt his anxiety crawling up his spine, causing him to stiffen up slightly. North seemed to have noticed, as she patted his back, a little _too_ hard, to be honest.

“Calm down, Con. It’s not like Markus is a monster or anything. I mean, you’re friends with me, so how bad can he be?”

“You pushed your way into my apartment.” Connor said, straight faced.

“And into your heart.”

Connor scoffed, rolling his eyes. Just as he was about to respond, the door was thrown open, a slightly awkward Markus revealing himself.

Both boys stared at each other, not sure who should speak first. North spoke up, slapping Connor’s shoulder.

“Hey, Markus, this is Connor. Now move.”

North pushed her and Connor into his apartment, leaving a slightly confused Markus at the door. She slumped down onto the couch, patting the seat next to her, indicating for Connor to sit. He obliged, carefully seating himself, still slightly uncomfortable.

Markus walked over to the pair, a smile plastered onto his face. “The others should be here soon. Do you guys want anything to drink?”

“I’ll have a beer,” North looked over at Connor, who still seemed uncomfortable, “Do you want anything?”

Connor shook his head, an awkward smile stretching onto his lips. “No, I’m alright. Thank you, though.”

Markus nodded his head, walking over to his fridge to grab a beer. He tossed it to North, who caught it effortlessly, before waving it in the air, the content of the bottle swishing around.

“Hey! Bring me a bottle opener!”

Markus looked at her, an eyebrow raised so high Connor was worried that it would touch his hairline. “Where are your manners?”

“Up your asshole, now give me a bottle opener.”

Connor held in a laugh at Markus’ dejected sigh. He knew that it was going to be long but eventful night.

* * *

 

It took about thirty minutes for the rest of the group to come. Not so surprisingly, there weren’t that many people who came. Connor introduced himself to the others, who's names were Josh, Simon, Kara, and Luther. Kara had brought her little sister, Alice, as well, which caused Markus to make North promise to not use any vulgar language tonight. She reluctantly agreed, mainly because Markus wouldn’t stop nagging about it.

Once everyone was all situated, Markus went to turn on the Switch, fidgeting with the cable as he did so. After the screen was filled with vibrant colors and the Mario Kart logo, Markus grabbed four switch controllers, tossing them at North, Josh, and Luther. Smiling, he handed the last controller to Connor, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“I figured that chucking the controller at you wouldn’t be the _best_ first impression,” Markus said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Connor felt the heat rising to his cheeks in embarrassment. Taking the controller, he noticed how small it was, fitting comfortably in the palm of his hands. Josh seemed to have noticed this too, making a point to tell everyone about it.

“Who are these made for? Children?” 

North shook her head, pointing at her controller, then at Alice’s hands. “Inaccurate, these are also too small for Alice,” She pointed towards Luther, who was currently struggling with the buttons, “Do you see Luther complaining?”

“Luther’s too nice to complain,” Kara said, a small smile forming on her face.

“Luther can’t see the damn letters on the controller,” Luther mumbled, bringing it close to his face.

Connor stifled a laugh, turning his head away. North waved her hand at Luther, dismissing his complaint.

“Those aren’t important. Now can we start?”

With that, Markus cleared his throat. “You know the rules: the top two to come out of this match play the top two of the other group to see who this weeks winner is,” He looked over towards Connor, “Any questions since it’s your first time?”

It took Connor an embarrassing amount of time to remember how to speak, which caused North to snort a little. 

“I’m good.” He managed to strain out.

After that, Josh selected a four player race and the group went and chose their players. North picked Lemmy, Josh picked Waluigi, Luther picked Isabelle, and Connor went with Peach. At his choice, North raised an eyebrow, eyeing him curiously.

Connor looked over at her, his head tilted slightly. “What?”

She shrugged her shoulders, a playful smile tugging at her lips. “You know what they say: if you play as Peach then you’re probably gay,”

Connor rolled his eyes, not paying attention to what was coming out of his mouth. “Well now we can say those assumptions are correct.”

As soon as it left his mouth, Connor froze. It wasn’t that he was _ashamed_ of his sexuality, in fact, he’d gone to pride parades and was actively involved in the community. But having all eyes on him in that exact moment didn’t feel like the _best._ After a pregnant pause and Connor’s face turning beet red, there was a loud howl of laughter coming out of North. Not long after her laughter could be heard throughout the room, even coming from Connor himself.  

“I _knew_ there was a reason that I liked you!” North exclaimed, patting his shoulder as she tried to calm her laughter.

When she found her composure, she looked at him, a lighthearted smirk on her face. “Listen, all of us are a little gay. I’d be more shocked if you were straight.”

Connor groaned, burying his face into his hands. “Can we please play the game now and pretend that I didn’t say that?”

Josh looked over at him, still giggling slightly. “Oh, we can start playing. But we’re not gonna forget.”

As soon as that was said, the game started. Because it was Connor’s first time playing with them, Josh chose the Mushroom cup. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t his best decision, as by the third course, Connor was currently beating them. At first, they thought it was just beginners luck, but the three of them quickly began to realize that Connor was just _surprisingly_ good at Mario Kart. Somehow he _always_ had one of those horn items when a blue shell was sent at him. He also seemed to be able to predict their movements, as when North tried to crash her kart into him he would maneuver away from her so she’d end up hitting Josh or Luther.

Once the third course had finished North threw her controller on the ground. “This game is fucking rigged,” She pointed an accusing finger at Connor, “How the fuck?”

Connor only smiled, staring at her innocently, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t quite understand that question.”

She glared at him one last time before picking up her controller, grumbling about how she was gonna break it over his head.

The fourth course went as well as they expected. Connor ended up winning the cup with four first places, and Luther barely made it in second, winning over Josh by just two points. North was absolutely fuming. She demanded that Connor tell her what secrets he knew so she could beat him next time. He only smiled at her, saying that it was just luck.

Markus, Kara, and Simon were the next group to go. It was a relatively calm match, at least, compared to the first one. Markus was clearly skilled, bobbing and weaving through all of the shells and bombs. Connor couldn’t help but stare at the man. Looking at Markus laughing and genuinely enjoying his time made something in Connor jump. His eyes trailed down further to his lips, which were currently being tugged by Markus’ teeth in concentration.

“Oh my _God_ I’m so gay,” Connor muttered, swallowing audibly.

North looked over at him, rolling her eyes. “Jesus, you are a mess.”

Connor looked over at her, his eyes widening slightly. “Did I say that out loud?”

She rolled her eyes, nodding her head. “You’re lucky no one else was paying attention.”

Connor felt his cheeks heating up again. Biting his tongue, he forced himself to look at the TV. Unsurprisingly, Markus had won with three first places and one second place, and Kara had placed second. Looking up at them, Markus smiled, handing Luther and Connor the other controllers.

“Ready?” Markus asked.

Connor nodded, his throat suddenly getting dry. Clearing his throat, he spoke: “What cup are we playing?”

Markus shook his head, looking towards the screen. “We’re just playing one course for the finale,”

When Rainbow Road was highlighted, Connor sighed. _Of course._ Luther looked over at him, seeming to mirror his exact expression.

“This is Markus’ way of winning,” Leaning in, he whispered loudly, “He always cheats.”

Markus gasped, throwing a pillow at the bigger man. “I do _not_. It’s not my fault you fall off all the time.”

“Maybe you can get me a regular controller rather than these baby ones,”

“Maybe you should’ve stopped growing at six foot,”

North groaned, tossing her head back. “Just start the damn thing.”

Nothing else was said after that. Once Rainbow Road was selected Connor leaned forward a bit, concentrating on the game.

It was a tight race between Connor and Markus. They kept switching places as first and second, bumping karts frequently. Once Connor was in first place again, he could see the indicator that a blue shell was coming. Smirking, he let go of the accelerator, letting Markus zoom forward, who didn’t seem to notice the shell coming after him. When the shell hit and Markus’ kart was disabled, Connor drove past him.

“Thanks for taking that for me.” He said, winking at the heteroaromatic man.

Next to him Josh let out a surprised laugh, clearly not expecting that from him. Markus only grumbled, willing his kart to catch up. Eventually he was right behind Connor, so close that he could bump him. Instead of playing fair, North launched over the couch, covering Markus’ eyes with her hands.

“Go, Connor! You can do it!”

“What the fuck!”

“Markus.”

“Sorry Kara!”

Connor wasn’t paying attention to their conversation, as he was too focused. Once he crossed the line he took a deep breath, a smile forming on his face.

The match ended with Connor in first place, Markus in second, Kara in third, and Luther in fourth. None of them seemed to mind though, as they were just glad that someone _finally_ beat Markus.

North gave Connor a high five, hugging his neck tightly. “You _need_ to come over when we play Smash. Maybe you can beat him again!”

Connor laughed, nodding his head slightly. He looked over at Markus, who seemed to get over his sulking. When he looked over at Connor there was a competitiveness in his eyes. Pointing at him, he smiled.

“You’re going _down_ next week you piece of shit.”

Kara hit the back of Markus’ head, a disappointed look on her face. “What did I just say?”

Connor laughed at their interaction. 

He honestly couldn’t wait for next week to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen connor may have not been a total disaster in this chapter, but that's because he gets way too competitive to be embarrassed. just wait until markus and connor's next interaction ;)  
> comments are appreciated!


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my sons are great people  
> albeit a little strange   
> but they're great p e o p l e

Two days after Connor’s Mario Kart win, he was back at his normal antics: locking himself in his apartment while trying to completely avoid Markus. Of course, like every “normal” human being, he had to go out of his room to buy necessities, but he would rush out the door and then back into it just as quickly.

He wasn’t _intentionally_ trying to avoid Markus, it was just that by nature, he was a socially awkward person. It didn’t help that Markus was way too cute for his own good. It also didn’t help that almost every night Connor kept having dreams about his extremely cute neighbor swearing and getting all heated over a video game. What made it even _more_ embarrassing was whenever his brothers would make fun of his crush on the man:

**[Triplets]**

**Nines, 6:57pm:** I still can’t believe that you went to their gaming night.

**Curt, 6:57pm:** i can’t believe that you didn’t embarrass yourself

**Me, 7:00pm:** I w i n k e d at him

**Me, 7:00pm:** WINKED

**Me, 7:00pm:** WHO DOES THAT

**Nines, 7:02pm:** It’s getting boring watching you act like this. Please ask the man out.

**Me, 7:03pm:** And why would I do that?

**Me, 7:03pm: Me, 7:00pm:** Do you want me to spontaneously combust?

**Nines, 7:05pm:** That’d be more entertaining than seeing you have a meltdown every time we come over.

**Curt, 7:08pm:** ^^ also we’re coming over tomorrow, prepare yourself

Connor groaned, setting his phone down on the nightstand. He hoped that his brothers wouldn’t embarrass him even _further._ He really didn’t need North finding out about any of his blunders. Turning around in his bed, he shut his eyes, forcing himself to sleep, and although Connor wasn’t necessarily a man of worship, he prayed that tomorrow would be easy.

* * *

 

Turns out that praying after not going to church for four years doesn’t work. Connor woke up to the sound of multiple fists pounding at his door. Quickly glancing at the clock, he grumbled out some curses before grabbing his glasses and making his way towards the door. Swinging it open, he was greeted by two faces that he never thought he could hate more.

“It’s _seven in the morning._ Why are you here?”

Nines shrugged his shoulders, letting himself in. “We told you that we were coming.”

Curtis followed after him, a grin on his face. He slapped Connor’s back roughly. “C’mon, don’t pretend that you didn’t miss us!”

Connor squinted at his brother, an exasperated noise leaving his throat. “I just saw you last week. How could I possibly miss you?”

Neither of them bothered to give him a response. Instead, Curtis walked over to the tiny kitchen area, raiding his fridge. After pulling out a couple of eggs he moved towards the stove, looking for a frying pan.

“Where’s your pans?”

Connor pointed towards one of the cabinets, yawning. “In there,”

Once Curtis grabbed the pan out of the cabinet he frowned. Turning towards Connor, he held up the pan. It was a relatively small one, and it _definitely_ wasn’t high quality. In fact, it had pretty much seen its last days.

“Con, you need some new pans,” He then gestured to the rest of the kitchen, “And utensils.”

Before Connor could defend himself he heard a loud cracking noise coming from the “living room” area. Turning around slowly, he saw Nines sitting on the couch. Except he wasn’t sitting on the couch as much as he was sitting _through_ the couch, as it had broken right where Nines was sitting. He cleared his throat, pointing towards himself.

“You also need a new couch.”

Connor stared at him wide-eyed for a few more moments, a pregnant pause filling the room, before letting out the loudest cry possible.

Nines and Curtis stared at each other, then back at Connor, who had now took to a squatting position on the floor, his head buried in his hands. For a few seconds no one moved, and only Connor’s incoherent mumbling could be heard. Nines eventually got up and walked over towards his distressed brother, awkwardly patting his back.

“To be fair,” He started, “The couch was _pretty_ old.”

Connor stayed in his huddled position for a few more seconds before flopping down onto the cold floor.

“I’m not made of money!” Connor wailed, his crying muffled by the hardwood.

Nines sighed before standing up, an unamused look on his face. “I’ll pay for a new couch. Curtis can pay for your stupid kitchen utensils.”

Curtis gasped, flipping him off. “Hey! I care about what my brother eats!”

After some more arguing Connor sat up, sending both of them a harsh glare. Standing up, he pointed at Nines, who’s eyebrows raised slightly, a nervous tick that he picked up.

“ _You,_ ” Connor said, mock anger filling his voice, “Are helping me with my laundry for a _month_.”

Nines merely shrugged his shoulders, a smirk playing on his lips. “I suppose that’s a fair trade.”

Once Nines had agreed to his terms, Connor let out a dejected noise. He walked away to his room, quickly finding some comfortable clothes to go shopping in. He knew it was going to be a long day.

* * *

 

“What about this one?”

“No, it doesn’t go with his apartment.”

“Since when are you the ‘expert’?”

“Curtis, that green looks like someone had a few too many drinks and threw up in the bar’s bathroom. It would go with _nothing_.”

For the past hour, Connor had been subjected to his brother’s annoying arguing about what would go well in his apartment. He didn’t see what was the problem, his walls were white and his furniture was mainly brown. It wasn’t like those two colors were hard to pair things with. So why were they taking so long to just _pick a couch?_ He did try to intervene, pointing them in the direction of a couch that looked very similar to the one that Nines broke, but they both shut him down, leaving him to suffer while listening to their argument.

They’d already gotten him a new pan, a pot, and a few more plates and utensils. Now here they all were, standing in front of a couch at Crate & Barrel, listening to two giants arguing about a _couch._ Connor could’ve sworn that the two employees were both amused and concerned.

Finally, Nines and Curtis had settled on a gray couch, which was much more structurally sound than his last one. Connor carried the box out to the car while the other two continued to bicker about it.

“I still think that green couch would’ve been just fine,”

“I’m sure that father dropped you on your head when you were a baby, because you’re wrong.”

“What was wrong with it? I’m pretty sure I have a sweater that’s the same color.”

“Exactly. That sweater is—“

“Get,” Connor wheezed, slamming the trunk of the car, “In the car. Now.”

The rest of the car ride went off without a hitch. Once they were back at the apartment building Nines went to grab the box while Curtis rushed up the stairs to put away Connor’s new kitchen utensils. After Nines had set the box down in the middle of the living room, he looked towards Connor, a serious look on his face.

“We can build the couch tomorrow. I’ll have the old one scrapped.”

Connor nodded his head, patting him on the shoulder. “Thanks,” Looking towards his room, he tugged his brother along, “Now come on, you said you’d help me with my laundry.”

Nines let out a loud sigh, but allowed himself to be pulled. Connor grabbed his basket, handing it over to his brother, a smirk on his face.

“Just because I said I’d help you doesn’t mean that I’m your slave.” Nines stated, but he took the basket anyways.

The two of them exited the apartment, with Connor explaining to Curtis where they were going. Once they were in the laundry room Nines haphazardly tossed Connor’s clothes into a washing machine, not bothering to evenly spread it. He poured some of the fabric softener in and tossed in some laundry detergent. Closing the lid shut, Nines leaned against the machine, clapping his hands together as if he’d just touched something dirty.

“Happy?”

Connor rolled his eyes, an amused look on his face. “Immensely.”

They chatted for a while before the pair heard a loud thumping noise. Connor felt his eyebrows furrow. Looking at the washing machine, he noticed that it was starting to move, bumping into Nines.

“Did you put all my stuff to one side?”

“Perhaps?”

“Follow up question: have you ever done laundry before?”

Nines didn’t bother answering that question. Connor rubbed his face before walking over towards the machine. Pushing Nines out of the way, he hopped up onto it, subduing the movements slightly.

“How the hell do you _not_ know how to do laundry?” Connor asked, exasperated.

“I _do,_ ” Nines stated defensively, “Your machines are just old.”

“You can’t just blame all your problems on my old building.”

“I believe I can. I’m a responsible adult, how would I live without knowing how to do laundry?”

“You’re being a little shit, you know that—“

“Connor?”

Connor’s attention immediately snapped towards the new voice. He groaned internally, looking at his impossibly attractive neighbor.

“Markus! Hey,” Connor got out, not paying attention to the increasingly bumpy washing machine he was sitting on.

Before he could say anything else, he felt himself be bumped off of the machine, cursing as he barely caught himself. He could hear Markus holding back a laugh, which made him want to crawl back into his apartment and never leave. Connor almost did just that, if it weren’t for his awful excuse for a brother, who held out his hand to Markus.

“Hello, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Conan.”

Markus smiled, shifting his basket to shake his hand. “Markus.”

Nines looked back at Connor, gesturing to himself and Markus. “See? This is how you interact with other humans,” he looked back at Markus, an apologetic look on his face, “I’m sorry, my brother is socially inept and can’t figure out how to make friends.”

Connor looked at his brother with a look of betrayal. Before he could say anything another loud thumping noise from the washing machine caught his attention. He quickly jumped back onto it, this time splaying his entire body on it. He didn’t need to see Markus to know that he was smiling. Connor could hear footsteps nearing him, before a hand rested on his shoulder.

“Hey,” Markus said, an amused grin stretching across his face, “Are you okay?”

Connor couldn’t stop the words that came out of his mouth. “I’m gay,”

Markus blinked, tilting his head in confusion. “What?”

Connor felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment. “I meant I’m _great._ Peachy, all good. Fantastic, actually.”

He looked over at his brother, pleading for him to stop whatever was coming out of his mouth. Nines merely shook his head, silent laughter coming from his lips. Eventually, he took pity on him, and walked over to him.

“It was nice meeting you Markus, but I’m afraid my brother is signaling that I come and help him out of the mess he’s created.”

Connor felt his spirit leave him as Markus laughed at the two’s antics. He took one last glance at Connor before smiling.

“Well, hopefully I’ll see you on Saturday.”

Connor couldn’t even get out any words before Markus went over to another machine, picking up his dry clothes. Looking towards his brother, he sent him the harshest death glare he was capable of creating. One that said he was going to kill him once they got back up to his apartment.

Before he could state his death threats, the washing machine had a particularly hard bump, promptly pushing Connor off of it and face first onto the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> connor is a disaster and nines isn't helping  
> comments are appreciated :)


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmmm have this

After an embarrassing walk back to the apartment and an even more mortifying dinner, Connor was ecstatic that it was the next day. Conan had agreed to come over today to help him build the new couch he’d gotten, as a favor for breaking his original couch and for embarrassing him in front of Markus. Curtis would’ve come as well, but Connor really didn’t want his chances of being an idiot to skyrocket because both of his brother’s were with him.

Connor still felt flustered about flat out saying “I’m gay” to Markus. Out of all the possibilities, why did _that_ need to come out of him? Luckily, Markus didn’t seem to hear him, or he chose to ignore it for their budding friendship, either way Connor was grateful for that.

A knock at the door followed by quiet snickering left an uneasy feeling in Connor’s stomach. Walking towards the door he slowly pulled it open, immediately regretting his decision:

Standing in front of him was, as expected, his brother. But what was unexpected was the figure standing next to him, currently trying to hold back their laughter from something that Nines must’ve said. Connor felt just _how_ forced his smile was when he spoke to them:

“Conan, I see that you’ve met North,”

At the sound of his voice North turned to face him, a gigantic smile stretched across her face. “Markus asked you if you were okay and you said ‘I’m gay’?”

Connor turned towards his brother, a look of betrayal on his face. A similar feeling of embarrassment was beginning to fill him. Before he could even voice his thoughts, Nines spoke:

“Are you going to make us stand out here, or can we go inside so I can build your couch?”

Connor reluctantly allowed them inside, feeling himself cringe internally at the thought of Nines and North becoming friends. What a horrible thought, truly. Walking over to the large box in the middle of his room, Connor quickly sliced off the tape, opening it and placing the pieces down gently. Looking towards Nines, he gestured towards the mess of pieces.

“Well? You said you’d build it.”

Nines let out an exaggerated sigh, moving to take a seat on the floor, reading the instructions. North pointed at the whole mess, a confused look on her face.

“I thought you had a couch?”

“I _did_ ,” Connor pointed towards Nines, who was currently attempting to shove a leg onto the base of the couch, “But _someone_ broke it when he sat down.”

Nines looked up from his spot, an unamused look on his face. “I resent that.”

North shook her head, small snorts coming out of her. “So your old one broke because of _his_ fat ass?”

“I am not ‘fat’. My weight is proportionate to my height.” He said, not bothering to look up at the two of them.

North rolled her eyes, a smile gracing her lips. Glancing back at Connor, she couldn’t help but feel the laughter bubbling in her throat. Connor seemed to notice her struggling, as he glared playfully at her.

“What’s your problem?”

“I can’t believe that you fell off the washing machine.”

Connor looked over his shoulder to send a seething stare at his brother. “How much did you tell her?”

“Not much. Just enough for her to know how embarrassing you can be.”

Connor felt his shoulders drop, feeling all flustered again. North patted his shoulder, her laughter dying down slightly. “It’s fine, Con. None of us thought you were ‘cool’ anyway,”

“This is _slander_ ,”

The rest of the morning was filled with plenty of banter and poking fun at Connor’s miserable attempts at looking like a normal human being. There was the occasional sigh or groan from Nines when he got angry at the instructions:

_“This is harder than fucking IKEA,”_

_“First of all, you owe a quarter in my new swear jar, and two, nothing will ever be harder than IKEA instructions.”_

North never thought she’d see Connor so relaxed. Sure, he seemed to be enjoying himself at the Mario Kart party last week, but even then he seemed tense. It was a fresh sight to see him playfully joke around with his brother, his entire body language embodying comfort and happiness.

It was around one in the afternoon when North got a message from Markus in their group chat:

**[Jerichoes™]**

**Activist Jesus, 1:02pm:** have I told you that I hate my job?

**Activist Jesus, 1:02pm:** because I do

**Me, 1:03pm:** quit and become a hooker

**Activist Jesus, 1:06pm:** excuse you, I prefer the term “prostitute”

**Brat, 1:06pm:** They both mean the same thing. It literally does not matter

**Activist Jesus, 1:08pm:** yeah, but prostitute sounds more classy

**Si** ♥︎ **, 1:11pm:** Shouldn’t you be working Markus?

**Activist Jesus, 1:11pm:** I’m on break

As if on cue, an idea popped inside of North’s head. Grinning wickedly, she quickly typed in the chat:

**[Jerichoes™]**

**Me, 1:16pm:** what time is your break over??

**Activist Jesus, 1:17pm:** 2 why?

North set down her phone, not bothering to look at the rest of the messages that were pinging her phone. Connor looked over at her, then down at her phone. “Aren’t you going to look?”

She shrugged her shoulders, acting nonchalant. “It’s probably Simon having a gay panic,” A look of pondering found it’s way onto her face, “You should hang out with him, I’m sure you’d have so much in common.”

Connor scoffed, turning away to talk to his brother. Watching their interactions reminded North of how her and the rest of the group acted around each other, and as reluctant as she was to admit it, it brought a warm feeling to her heart.

“So, is it just you two? Or is there any other secret brothers hidden?”

Nines rolled his eyes, screwing a nail in before responding. “We have another brother, Curtis. We’re all triplets.”

“Curt is a brat.” Connor finished, helping his brother place the couch in the correct space. Testing the waters, he sat down gently on the couch before relaxing into it completely.

North laughed, sitting herself down on the arm of the couch. They spent the next thirty minutes talking about their families and their lives as kids. North enjoyed listening to the many stories that Nines would supply about Connor’s mishaps in romance.

_“There was this one time in band when Connor tried to impress one of the football players.”_

_“Oh really? What happened?”_

_“He tried to look cool while doing his routine but ended up dropping his retainer and tripping over himself to find it.”_

_“I mean hey, at least he didn’t drop his trumpet.”_

_“No, but when he had the solo he completely fucked it up and it sounded like a dying cat.”_

_There was a beat of silence before Connor answered. “That’s a quarter in the jar, Nines.”_

At 2:10 North suggested they go and get ice cream to celebrate Connor’s new couch. 

“Connor can pay for it.” She said, grabbing her coat and opening the door.

Connor didn’t even fight it. He just let out a dejected sigh and grabbed his wallet and keys, locking the door behind him.

He looked at the two of them, pointing an accusatory finger. “You two assholes better not buy anything expensive. I barely make more than minimum wage.”

Nines held out a hand expectantly. When Connor looked at him in confusion, he spoke: “That’ll be one quarter for your swear.”

* * *

 

The walk to the ice cream shop was cold and uneventful. Nines had suggested that they just go to Dairy Queen, as it was right next to their apartment building, but North was dead set on forcing them to go to Cold Stone. The only complaint that Connor had was that Cold Stone was more expensive than Dairy Queen.

Once they reached the store, North roughly pulled the door open, making the door swing open. Walking inside, she scanned the counter to look for a certain heterochromatic man. When she didn’t find him, she walked up to the counter to ask an associate:

“Hey, Markus is working today, right?”

The employee, Jerry, smiled, nodding his head. “Hello, North. Markus is just getting another batch of cotton candy, he’ll be back shortly.”

As if hearing his name, Markus appeared from the back, opening the glass case and shoving the ice cream bucket in it’s place. North waved over the pair she came with, a huge smile on her face.

“C’mon you dorks! Let’s get some!”

Normally, Markus would be able to tolerate North infiltrating his workplace. She was usually here once a week, anyways, and she would always buy something. But watching his annoyingly cute neighbor and a eerily similar copy of him walking over to her made his heart skip a beat. Glaring at North, he took a deep breath before putting on his “customer service” face.

“Hello, what can I get you?” He asked politely, ignoring the smug look on North’s face.

North went up to order first, getting a medium sized cup of cotton candy ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. When Connor gave her a face she shrugged, explaining that she had a sugar tooth. Nines went next and ordered a small sized cup of vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate shavings. When it was Connor’s turn to order everyone, including himself, was surprised to see him get his order out without messing up once.

“I’ll take coffee in the medium sized cup.”

North shook her head, pointing at the labels. “No, no, Concon, you need to say the name.”

Connor looked at her with the most unamused face anyone could have imagined. Turning back towards Markus, he repeated his order. “I’ll take coffee in the _‘love it’ size,_ ” He turned to face North, his eyebrow raised, “Happy?”

She nodded her head. “Very.”

With all three of their orders it came up to around fifteen dollars, which Connor begrudgingly paid, mumbling something about how ungrateful the other two were. When they seemed to be done with their order North pulled out a wad of one dollar bills and stuffed it in the glass tip jar beside Markus, who’s face suddenly morphed into an embarrassed look.

“Do I have to?” He asked North, almost pleading.

North was having none of it. Raising her voice slightly, she talked to him in her best “professional” voice: “Excuse me, sir, but I believe that it is customary for you to sing after I tip you.”

Markus looked at her for a second, his face heating up more by the second. After another few seconds of deliberation, he sighed, forcing his other coworkers to sing with him:

“This is your Cold Stone song that isn’t very long hey!”

North looked over at Nines, who seemed to be slightly amused. “Don’t you think that for my tip amount, it should’ve been longer?”

Nines tilted his head, pretending to be in thought. He fished another dollar bill out of his wallet and placed it in the jar. “Allow me to assist you, then.”

Markus looked over at the taller triplet in exasperation. “You’re a bad person for North to hang around with.”

North waved a hand at him, dismissing the thought. “Sing for me, you underpaid millennial.”

Markus took a glance at Connor, who also seemed to be enjoying his misery, and then cleared his throat.

“Zippity Doo Dah, Zippity Day,

My oh my, what a wonderful day,

plenty of ice cream,

headed your way,

Zippity Doo Dah, Zippity Day.”

After the song was over all three of them clapped, adding to Markus’ growing embarrassment. Looking at all three of them, he pointed towards the door.

“Get out of my store.”

North gasped, walking over to Connor and hugging her arms around his shoulders. “Wow, I can’t believe you would be _so_ rude to someone _so_ adorable.”

“I meant _you,_ ” He said, pointing at North before looking back at Connor, “You’re welcome here whenever you’d like. It’d be nice seeing you here.”

When Connor’s eyes widened Markus immediately went into panic mode. “I mean, it’s nice seeing people I know! Not just you specifically, I mean, not that it _wouldn’t_ be great to see just you, but, you know, I’m not singling you out personally, but—“

Markus’ rant was cut off by the sound of Connor’s laughter. Looking at the other man, he felt his heart melt slightly at the sight. When Connor’s laughter subsided, he allowed himself to be pulled out of the shop by an extremely amused Nines and a cackling North.

Once they were out of sight Markus sighed, sinking down onto the counter. He felt Jerry’s hand on his back, patting him sympathetically.

“Hey bud, I know that must’ve been embarrassing, but you still have to work your shift.”

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haHA connor isn't the only uncool one  
> disasters™, now starring: markus "god i hate my job" manfred  
> psa don't be a jerk like north at cold stone, they will hate you  
> comments are appreciated :)


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in which markus is struggling while north is t h r i v i n g

Markus never truly realized how much he hated North as much as when he noticed a new group chat appear in his phone along with two other members:

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Homicidal, 11:38am:** hey homo

 **(313) 248-3175, 11:39am:** I’m not sure who you’re addressing

Markus stared at his phone for a couple of minutes before responding:

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Me, 11:41am:** who is this?

 **Homicidal, 11:41am:** markus, this is connor. connor, this is markus

 **(313) 248-3175, 11:43am:** Hello, Markus

Markus had never wanted to punch North more than now. Deciding against the idea, he decided to put in Connor’s information.  _He may as well find something good in this awkward predicament._

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Me, 11:47am:** hey connor, I’m sorry if north said anything stupid

 **Me, 11:47am:** she tends to lie a lot as well

 **Homicidal, 11:48am:** hey, don’t make me bring in conan. we’ll both mess with you

 **Connor, 11:50am:** You have my brothers number? Why?

 **Homicidal, 11:51am:** b l a c k m a i l

 **Connor, 11:53am:** I don’t appreciate this bullying

 **Connor, 11:53am:** This is cyberbullying

Markus laughed a bit at Connor’s messages. He didn’t think that Connor and North would get along as well as they did, and apparently she got along with his brother as well, which was _interesting,_ to say the least.

Staring at his phone, he noticed Connor and North bantering back and forth, both making fun of each other, with North calling him a “gay disaster” and Connor calling her “Satan’s boss”. It was interesting to see Connor act like this, even though it was through texting. He was usually reserved and a bit awkward, but when he was talking to North he seemed to be more playful, but Markus didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing that North brought out that side of Connor. Before he could decide, he looked down at his phone which seemed to be buzzing to life:

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Homicidal, 11:59am:** ooOOOH CONNOR SENT ME A RUDE TEXT PRIVATELY

 **Connor, 12:01pm:** Stop snitching. That’s rude

Markus decided that North was a decent influence on Connor.

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Homicidal, 12:03pm:** no, what’s rude is markus kicking us out of cold stone

 **Homicidal, 12:03pm:** and even kicking out the pretty boy because he had a bisexual panic

Markus decided that North was a bad person for Connor to hang out with.

* * *

 

The sound of knocking alerted Markus to someones presence at the front door. Slowly getting up from his lounging position, he walked over to the door, suddenly feeling the urge to close the door on the individual.

“Hello you whore,” North greeted, pushing her way into Markus’ apartment. 

Markus blinked for a moment, processing what was happening. Knowing that there was no way to get her out of his place once she was in there, he sighed, closing the door and shuffling back over to the couch. Flopping down, he shoved her legs away, resuming his napping position. She gave him a look, clearly unamused by his behavior.

“Really? Haven’t you been sleeping all day?”

“No,” He stated petulantly, “You texted me earlier, so I couldn’t sleep. I’m making up for lost time.”

North scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You’re acting like you have the hardest life in the world,”

Markus glanced up at her, sticking his middle finger in the air. “Hey, I have to deal with customers like _you_ , I think that’s a pretty impossible feat.”

North pushed his feet off of the couch, causing Markus to hang off of the couch, with his lower half on the floor and his upper half still smushed against the couch. Markus didn’t even bother with looking at her, he just mindlessly flopped one leg back up, kicking her in the process. She snorted, letting her arms drape against his legs.

They were silent for a while, just enjoying each other’s company while North would occasionally rant about the “stupidly attractive asshole who’s striking blue eyes make her feel like mush.” Markus had no idea who she was talking about, but he listened anyways, knowing that this guy _must_ be special if he made her feel this way. Occasionally he would butt in, expressing his own opinions at his friend’s misery.

“Why don’t you just tell him? If he’s so great then I don’t see the problem?” Markus mumbled, turning his body so he could see her.

North let out an incredulous noise, her eyebrows raising slightly. “That’s real funny, coming from _you_.”

Markus raised his head up a bit, looking at her in confusion. “What are you talking about? If I had a crush on a dude I’d tell him,”

She pointed towards Connor’s apartment, clearly unamused. “Really? You wanna try and lie to me?”

Markus felt his face heat up. Flopping back down, he stared at the ceiling. “I don’t have a crush on him,”

North snorted, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, and I’m the nicest person you’ll ever meet. When are you going to stop lying to yourself?”

Markus sighed, rubbing his face. “It’s not a crush. I just think he’s hot,”

“Do you think he’s funny?”

“He can be, at times.”

North smiled. “Do you think he’s nice?”

“I mean, he hangs out with _you,_ so I’m not sure about that one.”

That earned a slap to his calf. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I think he’s nice,” Markus paused, a grin stretching across his face, “I mean, he’s a little awkward, and sometimes he’s way too straightforward, but I think he’s _trying_.”

There was a couple of seconds of silence before Markus spoke up again: “Fuck, I may have a crush on Connor.”

North laughed, squeezing his leg slightly. Moving to look at him, she smiled. “I fucking _told_ you so,”

Markus scoffed, crossing his arms. “Who cares? It’s not like he feels the same way,”

“Are you,” North paused, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Are you serious?”

When Markus didn’t respond North leaned over to tug on his ear. He winced in pain, trying to pull away from her grip, but she refused to budge.

“Listen here you sad excuse for a human being,” She started, tugging harder, “Are we talking about the same Connor? The one who saw you in the laundry room and when asked if okay he responded with ‘I’m gay’?”

“He just fell off the machine, he was probably flustered.”

“Well what about when he winked at you during game night last week?”

Markus glared at her. “He was just being a little shit, okay?” Reaching out for her wrist, his eyebrows furrowed. “Now will you let go of my ear?”

North looked at him for a few seconds before sighing, releasing his ear from her grip. Markus finally relaxed, sinking back into the couch.

They sat in silence once again, with Markus cradling his hurt ear while North scoffed at the man’s antics. It seemed peaceful once again, until Markus heard a horrified gasp from North. He looked up at her, confused.

“What?”

She said nothing, opting to point at a spot on the floor. Following her finger he saw what caused her so much grief:

Sitting on the floor was a spider. It was about the size of a quarter and it was crawling ever so slowly towards them. Markus jumped up on the couch, attempting to get as far away as possible. North crawled up, jumping into Markus’ arms.

“Go and kill it!”

He looked at her as if she just said the stupidest thing. “No, you!”

“ _Markus, it’s looking at you!_ ”

The spider moved quicker, walking a couple of inches towards them. Markus yelled, his grip on North tightening a little. Moving back, he pressed up against the wall, not wanting to get down.

“North I swear to God you have to kill it,”

* * *

 

_“Markus this isn’t funny! It’s moving!”_

_“Did you think it was fake? Of fucking course it moves!”_

Connor was getting worried by the increasing amounts of yelling coming from Markus’ apartment. He could tell that North was there, as the high pitched screaming and profanities made it clear. He was about to ignore it and go back to reading, but another scream that sounded like Markus made him jump out of his chair and head over to their apartment.

Knocking on the door lightly, he spoke. “Hey, are you guys okay?”

_“Connor please help!”_

_“The door is unlocked, hurry!”_

Fearing the worst, Connor threw the door open, only to be greeted by the sight of Markus standing up on his couch, holding a very frightened North. Looking around, he noticed that there was no signs of a burglary or any dangerous threats. Connor felt his head tilt slightly, confused by their fear.

“What—“

North pointed to a spot on the floor. “Please kill it!”

Connor looked to where North was pointing and saw a rather large spider on the ground, not moving. Sighing, he walked over to the spot where the spider was camping, picked it up, and gently let it out of Markus’ window. Turning around to face them, his eyebrow rose, almost judging them.

“Is that why you two were screaming?”

Markus let North hop out of his arms, feeling himself let out a sigh of relief. “You saw how big it was!”

Connor was about to say something, but was cut off by North hugging him tightly. “North, I can’t _breathe_ ,”

She squeezed him for a couple more seconds before letting him go. “You’re like our knight in shining armor!”

He gave her a weird look. “All I did was take care of a spider.”

“Yeah, but Markus and I were too much of a bitch to do anything.”

Markus looked at North, clearly annoyed and embarrassed by her talking. He turned towards Connor, a smile gracing his face.

“Thanks for, you know, getting rid of it,”

Connor looked at him for a second, processing what he said before responding: “It’s no problem. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going,” He walked towards the door, opening it and pausing. Turning around, he cracked a grin, “Let me know if there are any more spiders.”

With that, Connor shut the door, leaving a very flustered Markus and an entertained North. Before North could say anything Markus shoved her out of his apartment, his face growing hotter at her laughter. Once she was out he sighed, leaning his head against the door. Pulling out his phone, he decided to confess how much of a mess he was to his friends:

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Me, 3:35pm:** guys, I’m a fucking m e s s

 **Me, 3:36pm:** connor came over because north and I freaked out about a stupid spider and just fucking picked it up

 **Me, 3:36pm:** he’s like, my hero

 **Homicidal, 3:38pm:** show your gratitude

 **Homicidal, 3:38pm:** blow him

 **Me, 3:39pm:** god I would

Markus turned off his phone for a few minutes, trying to recover himself. When he started to feel the warmth leave his cheeks he walked back over to his couch, lazily sitting back down. Unlocking his phone Markus felt his soul leave his body:

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Connor, 3:41pm:** I’m sure you meant to send this to your other friends

 **Connor, 3:41pm:** Also, North, I know you knew this was the wrong chat

 **Homicidal, 3:42pm:** but isn’t this much more

 **Homicidal, 3:42pm:** interesting??

Markus stared blankly at his phone for a few minutes, praying that this was some sort of bad dream or hallucination. After a few more seconds of staring, he came to the realization that this was, in fact, not a dream, and he just told Connor that he’d give him a blowjob. Face-planting into the couch, Markus let out a loud groan, feeling his embarrassment coming back.

His embarrassment was furthered when his phone rang again, announcing another message from Connor:

**[Three Muskequeers]**

**Connor, 3:46pm:** Markus, I heard a distressed noise coming from your apartment, are you alright?

Markus decided that Connor should no longer be friends with North. He also decided that the next game night he was going to kill North.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promise that disaster!connor will appear again, but i thought it'd be nice to see markus struggling for a quick second
> 
> now we're back to our regularly scheduled disaster!connor


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in which i know i promised a super smash bros ultimate game night but i watched game grumps and got the best idea (i promise that smash will be in there soon)

After what seemed like months but in reality was only a couple of days, another game night was in session. This time, North had offered to host it, since Markus refused to host after the mess they left. Everything was going great until North got a text from Kara saying that Alice was sick so her and Luther couldn’t come, and Josh texted her saying that he was out of town visiting family. It wasn’t like the game she chose required many people, in fact, Wheel of Fortune only needed three. But she didn’t really feel like awkwardly sitting there with Simon as Connor and Markus dodged around each other. It was getting tiring to watch the two of them dance around each other, so she decided to bring in some help:

**[Big boy™]**

**Me, 12:56pm:** hey

**Me, 12:56pm:** hey nines

**Me, 12:57pm:** ninesssssssssss

**Big boy™, 1:00pm:** What?

**Me, 1:02pm:** you should come to game night

**Big boy™, 1:02pm:** Why?

**Me, 1:04pm:** because i don’t want to keep watching connor and markus pining for each other and i need help

Ten minutes had passed before Nines responded to her text:

**[Big boy™]**

**Big boy™, 1:14pm:** Fine, I suppose it would be beneficial for the sake of our sanity.

**Big boy™, 1:14pm:** I’ll bring Curtis as well, just in case things go wrong.

**Me, 1:16pm:** and snacks. bring snacks

After texting Nines for a few more minutes about what snacks to bring and what apartment she lived in, North tossed her phone gently on the couch, getting ready to clean her apartment. As she was washing the dirty dishes she couldn’t help but think of how excited she was to see Nines again. The majority of her wanted to invite him so he could help her with Connor and Markus, but a small part of her was selfish and just wanted to see him.

Smiling to herself, she distracted herself with making her apartment as spotless as she could, occasionally daydreaming about the tall blue-eyed man.

* * *

 

The first thing that Connor saw when he opened his apartment door was not what he was expecting. Sure, he knew that him and Markus would probably get to North’s around the same time, maybe even meet each other halfway there, but he didn’t expect that Markus would _show up at his door._

Clearing his throat, Connor spoke: “Hey Markus,”

Markus smiled at him, looking almost as if he were made of literal sunshine. “Hey! I thought that we could walk together, since we’re going to the same place,”

Connor nodded his head, holding up a finger as he closed the door slightly, grabbing his phone and keys off of the coffee table. Once he was out in the hallway, he shut the door, making sure to lock it. Turning towards Markus, Connor’s lips stretched into an awkward, lopsided smile.

“Ready to go?”

Markus nodded, walking towards her apartment. Connor followed in suit, not quite walking behind him, but definitely not walking next to him. It was definitely awkward for a couple minutes before Markus spoke up:

“I should probably warn you: North’s apartment is a shit show.”

Connor let out a noise that was somewhere between choking and laughter. Looking at the other man he raised an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate?”

“She never fucking cleans, and she mostly eats take-out, so sometimes her tables are _covered_ in Chinese take-out boxes,” He wrinkled his nose in disgust, “Also, she naps on the couch a lot, so there’s at least five blankets that aren’t folded on the couch.”

Connor laughed, amused by the apparent disgust in Markus’ eyes. “Well, hopefully she cleaned just a _little bit_ ,”

Markus snorted, almost as if to say _“as if.”_ Once they finally reached North’s apartment, Connor knocked on her door. The faint sound of “it’s open” on the other side of the door could be heard. Opening the door, Connor noticed that Simon was already there, talking to a familiar figure. Walking in, Connor groaned, realizing who the other person was.

“Why are you here?” Connor asked, moving over towards Nines, who was engaged in a conversation with Simon.

Nines looked up at him, a stoic look on his face. “Why are you late?” He looked past Connor, spotting Markus, “Hello, Markus. Nice to see you again.”

Markus waved, feeling slightly awkward about the whole predicament. Connor turned his head towards him, sending an apologetic smile. Suddenly, Connor felt an arm slung around his neck, forcing him into a headlock.

“Curt, I swear on dad’s right hand I’ll kill you,” He wheezed out, trying to escape.

Curtis laughed, holding him down for a few more seconds before releasing him, opting to go and shake Markus’ hand. “Hey, you must be Markus! I’m Curtis,” He pointed towards Nines and Connor, “I’m their brother.”

Markus seemed slightly dazed, questioning whether or not he was in some sort of weird fever dream. He remembered Conan, the one guy he saw in the laundry room and at Cold Stone. But the other man, the one who was an _exact_ copy of Connor, minus the different hair cuts, was tripping him out.

Seeing that Markus was having an existential crisis, North cleared her throat, motioning towards the TV. “Well, shall we get started?”

Everyone agreed, sitting down to face the TV. North went to fiddle with her Switch, turning on Wheel of Fortune. Simon sighed, sinking into the cushions. Connor looked over at him, his head tilted in confusion.

“Is there something wrong?”

Simon glared at the back of North’s head. “Every time we play this game she cheats.”

North gasped, flipping the blonde off. “I _do not._ It’s not my fault that you guys just suck.”

Curtis snorted, rolling his eyes. “Wow, you almost sound like Nines.”

Whether or not North heard his comment was clearly not important, as she changed the subject: “ _Anyways,_ since Wheel of Fortune only has three players, we’ll split into teams of two,” She pointed towards Curtis and Connor, “You two will be a team.”

Looking at Markus and Simon, she pointed. “You two are a team.”

Then, pointing at herself and Nines, she smiled. “And Nines and I will be a team.”

“That’s not fair,” Curtis said, looking over towards Nines, “He’s the smartest person here!”

Connor looked over at his brother, unamused brown eyes looking straight into a matching pair. “Thanks. Appreciate that.”

Just as Curtis was about to respond Markus cleared his throat, drawing their attention. “Well, should we get started?”

The rest of the group agreed, beginning to create their characters. North and Nines created a girl with both of their features, Markus and Simon created someone that looked like a generic man, and Connor and Curtis created a disaster. Once everyone was finally ready and their characters were made, they started up the game, not really paying attention to the introduction. The game started with going into the toss up. Nines grabbed the controller first, buzzing in and filling in the answer: “cooking food” for the What Are You Doing category. The second toss up went to Simon, who accurately answered “Harrisburg Pennsylvania” for the On The Map category. Seeing the other two teams win two thousand dollars in the beginning made him want to scream, but he kept his calm.

Finally, the first round took place. North and Nines were up first, with North spinning first and landing on seven hundred dollars. They guessed around three letters before getting one incorrect. Next up was Markus and Simon, who landed on three hundred and guessed a “B” then proceeded to guess incorrectly on the next one. Connor and Curtis were up next, with Curtis spinning the wheel. Unfortunately for them, he landed on “lose a turn” which made Connor take a deep breath to calm down and not freak out. The game went on like this for a while, with North and Nines in the lead after correctly solving the puzzle, Simon and Markus trailing behind them, and Connor and Curtis left in the dust, due to the many “bankrupts” and “lose a turn” they got.

“I hope you rot in hell, North.” Connor stated, clearly annoyed from the way the game was going.

Nines’ forehead creased, almost insulted _for_ her. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her to his chest. “Just because _you_ were stupid and thought the puzzle was ‘combing my long hair’ instead of ‘cutting my long hair’ doesn’t mean you should take it out on her.”

North looked up at him, smiling softly as a snicker escaped her. Connor rolled his eyes, focusing his attention on the game.

On the third puzzle Connor finally lost it. After Curtis had gotten four bankrupts in a row, Connor grabbed his by the shoulders, shaking him violently.

“How can you get four bankrupts in a row?” Connor yelled, not letting go of the poor boy.

“I don’t know? Stop yelling at me!” Curtis yelled back, prying Connor’s hands off of him.

Because of their yelling, they couldn’t hear the laughter coming from North and Markus. Simon and Nines were looking at the pair with an amused look, attempting to hold back their laughter. Eventually the two boys had to be pried away by Nines, who grumbled something about always having to be the “mature” one.

The game went back to normal, with the occasional scream from Connor and fearful look from Curtis. As the game progressed Connor seemed to become angrier, as when Curtis had to spin again, he said: “Here it comes, _here it fucking co— Oh my god!_ ”

Connor let out a blood curdling scream, causing those around him to jump slightly. North didn’t bother with holding back, as she started to laugh, leaning against Nines as she cackled, which in turn caused Nines to start laughing as well. Connor groaned, putting his face into his hands, unable to say any coherent sentence. After a few more seconds of self-pity, they continued.

On the final puzzle before the winner was announced, Markus had finally gotten enough money from the spins before to finally solve it. Before he could even do anything though, Connor glared at him, his entire expression _daring_ him to solve it.

“If you solve this puzzle I swear on everything holy that I’ll never speak to you again and I’ll make living next to me a _living hell._ ”

Markus looked at the man, freezing over the button for solve. They both stared at each other as the timer went down, counting down from ten.

“Markus! What are you doing? We can win!” Simon asked, trying to grab the controller.

Markus pulled the controller from him, letting the counter come down to zero. The loss would’ve felt worse if it weren’t for Connor’s gigantic smile when he finally could solve _one_ puzzle. If he’d known that the other man could make such a face then he would’ve thrown the game a long time ago. Seeing Connor so happy about something as trivial as a video game made his heart flutter. Glancing over at his partner and seeing the look of disappointment on his face made a sheepish smile appear on his face. He pointed towards Connor, who was still celebrating even though the game will most likely go to North and Nines.

“Look at how happy he is,”

Simon looked over at Connor, then back at Markus’ lovestruck face. Sighing, he patted his friend on the shoulder. “You know that your face looks dumb right now, right?”

“Oh whatever, Si. You wouldn’t understand.”

“You’re right, _I_ wouldn’t,” Simon pointed towards North, who was currently looking at Nines with the same look as Markus, “But I’m sure _she_ does.”

Markus’ eyes followed to where Simon was pointing. He could feel his eyes widen in surprise when he saw the look North was giving Nines. Of course, it looked like both of them had been flirting back and forth with each other, but he didn’t think it was _serious._ Thinking back to their conversation a couple days ago, he remembered her saying that her crush had blue eyes. Piecing two and two together, Markus gasped, staring straight at North, who was currently doing a celebratory dance with Nines as they just won the game.

“North, oh my god, is Nines your—“

Before he could finish North threw herself at him, pressing her hand against his mouth. The look she gave him both scared him and proved to him that Nines was, indeed, her crush. The taller man looked at the two of them, confusion etched onto his face. It wasn’t there for long, however, as Connor threw a pillow at his brother.

“This is _bullshit!_ I want a rematch,” Looking at Curtis, he continued, “And a new partner!”

“Hey, it’s not like I _meant_ to get all those bad spaces!”

“You still did, though!”

Markus laughed underneath North’s hand. He listened to the trio of them arguing while North released him, going to start up another game. Watching as Simon and Curtis were switched, he smiled, preparing himself for the next game.

It was safe to say that Markus understood why Connor was so angry when playing with Curtis after the first round of the second game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> curtis is unlucky and connor wants a rematch
> 
> also go watch game grumps, they're great


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nines has a r e a l l y hard time with his emotions and connor is done™ with it
> 
> this is slightly shorter than the other chapters, sorry about that

The buzzing of Connor’s phone at three in the morning left him both confused and irritated. At first, he decided to ignore it, figuring that the buzzing would die down after a few minutes. When the buzzing continued and began to increase, Connor groaned, fumbling for his phone and turning it on:

**[Triplets]**

**Nines, 3:03am:** I need assistance.

 **Nines, 3:04am:** Please help.

 **Curt, 3:08am:** nines it’s actually fucking 3 what the fuck

 **Curt, 3:08am:** some of us need to sleep

 **Nines, 3:09am:** Curtis, please.

Connor watched the conversation go on for a few more minutes, enjoying Nines’ suffering and Curtis wanting to desperately sleep. Although something that Nines said caught his eye:

**[Triplets]**

**Nines, 3:14am:** I feel sick.

 **Me, 3:15am:** Do we need to come over?

 **Nines, 3:17am:** It’s not like an actual sickness. I know that I’m not sick. I just feel like it, almost like there’s a fluttering feeling in my stomach.

 **Curt, 3:18am:**??????

 **Nines, 3:18am:** I also feel…flustered, or something like that.

Connor took a moment to reread the messages Nines sent. Sighing, he sunk back into his pillows, typing back a response:

**[Triplets]**

**Me, 3:21am:** When do you feel like this?

 **Nines, 3:22am:** Well, it happened when we were at North’s apartment.

 **Nines, 3:22am:** Also when we went out for ice cream.

 **Curt, 3:24am:** you guys got ice cream without me??

 **Me, 3:25am:** Are you really this dense? You have no idea why you’re feeling this way?

 **Nines, 3:27am:** If I knew I wouldn’t be asking you two.

 **Me, 3:30am:** Oh my god Conan you like North

 **Me, 3:30am:** Why is this so foreign to you?

 **Nines, 3:31am:** Don’t be ridiculous, I don’t like her.

Connor spent the next twenty minutes trying to explain to his brother that yes, he was in love with North, and yes, he was very stupid. Nines didn’t seem to believe it though, saying that there was no way he could possibly have a crush on her, calling such a thing “juvenile.” Connor wanted so badly to slap his brother, but sleeping seemed like a better idea then to hop in his car and drive over to Nines’ house and hit him. So he turned the chat on mute, turned his phone on its screen, and fell back asleep. 

By the time he got up and checked his phone, he noticed over twenty unread messages coming from the group chat, beginning with Curtis trying to convince Nines that he was in love, then Nines rejecting the idea, and then he told Curtis that they got Cold Stone without him and Curtis threatened to tell North about his little crush on her. As much as he wanted to participate in the conversation, he decided to just send a message conveying his feelings towards the conversation:

**[Triplets]**

**Me, 8:45am:** Why don’t you just ask her on a date? If it works then cool, and if it doesn’t then you’ll know

Not bothering to look at the response, he got up and grabbed a wireless speaker from his nightstand, heading over to the bathroom. He set up the speaker, connecting it to his phone and setting it down on the bathroom counter, playing some old rock music from his dad’s generation. Listening to those songs made him remember when he was younger and him and Hank would listen to these songs while working on his schoolwork or doing any domestic chores. Smiling, he turned on the shower, using his hand to feel the temperature. Once he was happy with it, he took off his clothes and hopped into the shower, feeling the warmth of the water embracing him. 

After a few minutes in there, Bohemian Rhapsody came on, and Connor began to sing along to the lyrics, not necessarily paying attention to how loud he was being. When the third verse came around Connor began shouting as he washed his hair:

_“I see a little silhouetto of a man_

_Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?_

_Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very, frightening me”_

Extremely loud and off-key, Connor danced around in the shower, being careful to not slip and fall. As he continued to move around in the shower he became increasingly louder and his voice became less of a singing tone and more of a screaming tone. As time passed, Connor continued to sing all of Queen’s greatest hits while only slipping a few times in the process.

* * *

 

In the apartment next door, Markus was awaken by a loud screaming noise coming from Connor’s apartment. Sitting up in his bed, Markus furrowed his eyebrows in concentration, trying to determine whether or not what he heard was just a figment of his imagination. After about three more vague screaming noises coming from Connor’s apartment, Markus had come to the conclusion that, no, he wasn’t just imagining the noises, and yes, Connor was screaming. Stumbling out of his bed, he quickly put on some slippers and rushed out of his apartment, banging on the door to Connor’s.

“Connor? Hey, you good in there?”

When no response came from the other side, Markus tried the door handle. Adding to his fear, the door swung open without any trouble, indicating that either someone broke in or Connor left his door unlocked. Cautiously walking inside, Markus looked around the apartment, noting that nothing had been tampered with or stolen. Another scream coming from the bathroom caught his attention. Running over to the bathroom door Markus didn’t bother with knocking as he kicked the door open, effectively breaking the lock.

When Markus kicked the door open, he didn’t know what he was expecting. Perhaps he was expecting a burglar, perhaps just Connor brushing his teeth or getting ready for the day. What he was _not_ expecting was for Connor to be just getting out of the shower, _completely_ naked. Both men stared at each other for a few seconds, a pregnant pause filling the room before Connor ripped the towel off of the towel rack, covering what he could.

“Markus—“

“ _Oh my god I’m so sorry!_ ”

Markus slammed the door, holding the knob due to breaking the lock. He could feel his cheeks getting warm, both embarrassed because he just _walked in_ on his crush, and also slightly heated, because _wow_ Connor looked like he works out. A few more seconds passed and Markus felt the door being tugged at slightly. Letting go of the knob, Markus walked away from the door, not wanting to turn around. He felt a wave of heat press flush against his body, indicating that Connor had opened the door. Hearing him clear his throat, Markus turned around slowly, suddenly feeling very sheepish. He was greeted by a very flush looking Connor, who’s arms were crossed, an unamused but bashful look on his face.

“Care to explain?” Connor asked, an eyebrow raised.

Markus nodded, trying to untie his tongue. “Well, I heard yelling from here, and I thought you might’ve been trouble,”

If Connor could’ve been more embarrassed, then he definitely would’ve. He felt the tips of his ears turn red. Pointing towards the bathroom, he felt himself shrinking. “I was just, _singing,_ ”

Markus looked up at the man, exasperation in his expression. “ _Singing?”_

Connor coughed, trying to clear the awkward air. “Yeah, I guess I wasn’t paying attention about how loud I was getting. Sorry for worrying you,”

Markus continued to stare at him, still processing that Connor was _that_ bad of a singer. Once he finally caught on, he let out a laugh, mainly out of relief. Connor huffed, trying, but failing, to hide his smile.

“Hey, you shouldn’t be laughing. You broke my door!”

Markus’ laughter stopped, and a sheepish look replaced the one of pure happiness. “Oh, yeah. I’m sorry, I’ll pay for the damage,” He trailed off, looking towards the front door that was still open, “But you should really lock your door!”

Connor tilted his head, slightly confused. If Markus hadn’t been freaking out minutes ago, he would’ve found it endearing. “I was banging on your door and was about to kick it in, but it was _unlocked!_ Who knows what kind of crazy person you could’ve let in!”

Connor blinked, trying to process what Markus said. “But you came in?”

Markus nodded, motioning to himself. “Exactly! You let a crazy person in and look where that got you!”

He rolled his eyes, feeling grateful for Markus’ good nature and ability to let things go easily. Motioning towards the door, Connor smiled.

“Well, not that it hasn’t been _lovely_ seeing you, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to pretend that this never happened and possibly go to avoiding each other in the halls.”

Markus laughed at that. Walking towards the door he looked back at Connor. “Well, I’ll leave you alone, but I would prefer if you _didn’t_ avoid me in the hallways.”

Connor snorted, walking over to shut the door behind Markus. When he was finally out, Connor closed the door, remembering to lock it after Markus’ incessant requests. Pressing his back against the door, Connor let out a large sigh. After bantering with Markus for a bit, he didn’t think that he would be mortified about it, since the both of them were acting pretty natural about it. But after Markus _left,_ Connor was left with the gut dropping embarrassment that made him question whether he should just move to a different state.

Little did he know that as soon as Markus got back to his apartment, the poor man sunk into his couch, trying to get the image of Connor’s naked body out of his mind.

Markus ended up thinking about Connor _way_ too much during work, and almost dropped an entire bucket of ice cream on his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> markus is flustered but like also, real concerned bc connor just fucking, leaves his door unlocked like a dumbass 
> 
> sidenote: please, don't be like connor, lock your doors
> 
> comments are appreciated :)


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello it's 2019 and i still ship conkus/rk1000 and i hope you do too, because i have a lot left in store for y'all ;)
> 
> nines and north both think lowly of themselves and highly of each other. connor and markus may be disasters, but they can't listen to other people being messes as well

This was the third day that North came over to Markus’ apartment to complain about Nines. Normally, he’d be supportive and willing to listen to his friend’s love problems, but now, he wanted to _strangle_ her. Every time he’d tell her that Nines seems to be interested in her, she would dismiss the claims and make a list of reasons why he wouldn’t like her. Sometimes he wondered if it were possible to slap some sense into her, but then he’d remember that she’d easily knock him out if he even tried. So that’s why he was forced to listen to her complaints about how she wished that he’d just _notice_ her.

“Markus, you don’t _get_ it. He’s all,” North gestured with her hands, not finding the right words to explain what she was trying to convey, “Yeah.”

Markus sighed, pulling two eggs from the fridge, because if he needed to listen to her “unrequited” love, then he’d need to make some breakfast. “You know, I’m sure that if you just _asked_ him then you’d see that he’s also interested.”

She snorted, making her way to the kitchen island, leaning against it. “Yeah, right. Why would he like me?”

He didn’t even bother looking up from his pan as he answered. “Because you’re beautiful, you have a decent sense of humor, and you’re smart.”

She looked up at him, an almost soft smile appearing on her face. “Markus—“

“Also,” Markus continued, touching the sides of the egg to see if it was done, “You have a pretty great ass.”

He could hear the bubbling laughter coming from her. Forming a smile of his own, he looked up at her, one hand on his hip.

“So,” he started, waving his spatula at her with his free hand, “Are you going to tell him?”

When North’s confused face didn’t change, Markus sighed, an exasperated look on his face. “Are you going to tell _Nines_ that you _like_ him?”

He could practically see the light bulb go off in her head. She looked down at her hands, moving them around nervously. “Why should I? We’re already good friends, so why should I ruin it?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “You never know unless you try,”

She scoffed, crossing her arms. “That’s funny, coming from _you,_ ”

“What do you mean?”

It was North’s turn to look exasperated. “Oh I don’t know, does the name ‘Connor’ ring a bell to you?”

Markus’ face heated up. Looking down towards the egg, he shrugged his shoulders. “That’s different.”

“ _Right,_ ” She said, rolling her eyes, “Because your cute neighbor _totally_ isn’t into you. It’s not like he practically drools over you every chance he gets.”

He swatted at her with the spatula, the tips of his ears feeling hot. Pointing to one of the cabinets, he changed the subject.

“Just grab the damn plates so we can eat.”

“Sure, _lover boy._ ”

* * *

 

“Nines, what the fuck—“

“You really should learn to lock your door, a thief could come in.” 

Connor took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Conan Anderson, why the fuck are you in my apartment?”

His nose scrunched, staring at his brother with disappointment. “You really shouldn’t swear that much, it’s unprofessional.”

When Connor didn’t respond to him, he sighed, laying flat across the couch. “I, require assistance.”

Connor snorted, closing his door behind him. Moving towards the couch, he placed down the mail that was currently in his hands and sat down on the arm of the couch. After a few more seconds of silence, he spoke:

“So, are we just going to sit here awkwardly or are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

Nines stared up at the ceiling, trying to convey his emotions. “Have you ever noticed when North gets this little,” he gestured towards his eyes, “ _Excited_ glint in her eyes?”

Connor groaned, putting his face into his hands. “Please tell me that we’re not going to have _another_ conversation about her. Just admit that you have feelings for her and be done.”

Nines lifted up his head slightly, just enough for Connor to see his hard stare. At this, Connor’s face grew unamused, tired of having to hear the same complaints week after week about his “emotionless robot” of a brother finally experiencing feelings for the first time.

Ever since the last game night when Nines and North were on a team, Connor had become the place for Nines to talk about _all_ of his problems, specifically about North. At first, he didn’t mind, after all, it was very rare of him to even admit he _had_ emotions. Not only that, but the majority of their conversations would take place in their triplet group chat, meaning that Curtis would also have to listen to Nines’ confusion. But after a few too many jokes from Curtis’ end, Nines would end up talking only to _him_. Their conversations would range from normal, everyday texting to having to answer calls from three in the morning because “I don’t understand why I’m feeling this way.” Multiple times had Connor told him that he had a crush on North, but every single time Nines would reject the idea, saying that it was ridiculous for him and illogical for him to have _any_ feelings towards her.

Although Connor had been Nines’ go-to person to talk to, breaking into his house, especially this _early_ , was certainly _new,_ and also not welcomed. So instead of being more supportive like he should be, he quickly lost patience, grabbing his phone to text someone. Nines seemed to notice his fast movements, growing weary of what he was doing.

“Who are you texting?” He asked, almost hesitantly.

“North,” Connor replied, still typing his message, “If you’re not going to tell her about how you feel, then I _am._ ”

Before Connor could even hit send, Nines jumped up, grabbing the phone out of his hand and deleting the message, tossing it to the other end of the room. He gasped, moving his attack his taller brother by putting him in an arm-lock.

“I swear to everything holy that if you broke my phone—“

“Calm down you _gremlin._ I didn’t toss it that hard,” Nines spat out, trying to get out of Connor’s grasp. 

“Stop breaking all of my stuff!”

“Stop trying to get me to admit my feelings!”

At that, Connor’s grip around Nines’ neck loosened, allowing for the taller man to escape, finding sanctuary at the other end of the couch, far away from his grasp. When he noticed the shit-eating grin on Connor’s face, he groaned, looking away from him.

“So,” Connor said, moving closer to poke Nines in the shoulder, “You’re saying that you _do_ have feelings for North?”

“Nonsense. Stop putting words into my mouth.” Nines said, crossing his arms like a petulant child.

Connor laughed, patting his shoulder, albeit a little _too_ rough. “I don’t know why you don’t just tell her. I’m pretty sure she likes you too,”

Nines looked away, a defeated expression on his face. “Even _if_ I liked her, why would she be interested in someone like me?”

Connor’s eyebrows furrowed, not liking where Nines’ train of thought was heading. His brother seemed like an uncaring, stoic shell of a person, but beneath that layer, there was a man who was insecure and cared deeply for those he loved. Ever since they were little, Nines wasn’t one to show emotions, not because he didn’t feel any, but because he wasn’t sure _how_ to. Hank liked to joke how Connor and Curtis would feed off of all of Nines’ emotions in the womb since the two of them were _too_ dramatic and emotional. 

Punching his brother’s shoulder, Connor stared at him sternly, a look that _dared_ Nines to argue with him. “Conan Anderson, as your brother I’m not supposed to be this nice, so I will only say this once: you are not the ‘emotionless husk’ that you think you are. You are a great person and any person would be lucky to have you in their life.”

There was a long stretch of silence before Nines responded. “You think I’m great?”

Connor snorted, scooting back towards the arm of the couch. “Of course that’s the only thing you got from that.”

The conversation continued on, with Nines slowly beginning to accept that, just _maybe,_ he might have some sort of feelings towards North. As much as Connor loved his brother, which surprisingly, was a lot, he wanted to strangle him for being so dense.

Thirty minutes into the conversation and he was suddenly being grilled about his crush on Markus. Not liking these turn of events, Connor promptly ushered Nines to the door, and embarrassed look on his face as he told him to get out.

What neither of them were expecting was for North to appear from Markus’ apartment at the same time. Both North and Nines looked like deer in the headlights, startled and unable to speak. After a few more seconds of awkward silence, North was the first to speak up:

“Hey guys, what’s up?” She asked trying to sound natural, although the slight tremble in her voice gave her away.

Nines’ mouth opened for a moment, then closed, then opened again. Instead of being a good friend and normal adult, Nines quickly turned on his heel, waving goodbye and leaving the building. Seemingly confused by his antics, North sighed dejectedly, saying goodbye to Connor and heading back to her apartment. Just as he was about to close the door, Connor noticed Markus’ amused expression poking out from his apartment. Rather than talking to him, Connor shut the door behind him, preparing himself for the onslaught of messages he’d no doubt receive from Nines about his embarrassment.

For once, Connor wasn’t going to make fun of him, because he knew exactly how his brother felt when it came to this kind of thing.

* * *

 

A knock at Connor’s door around four in the afternoon caught his attention. Setting down his book, he walked over to the door, opening it slightly to see who it was.

Surprisingly, Markus was standing on the other side of the door, very reminiscent of the first time that they met. Except instead of that charming smile he had on that day, it was replaced by an annoyed and exhausted expression. Opening the door more, Connor felt his face flush slightly.

“If you’re here for a noise complaint, this time it wasn’t from me.”

The comment seemed to bring memories back to Markus, who’s face was currently heating up at an accelerated pace. His annoyed face turned into a flustered one, with the tips of his ears heating up as well.

“Again,” Markus began, rubbing the back of his neck, “I’m sorry about barging into your apartment like that, and, into your bathroom.”

If it were possible, Connor’s face turned a brighter shade of red. Moving behind the door slightly, he offered Markus a questioning look. “So, why are you here?”

Now, if this were their first meeting, Markus would’ve been slightly off put by Connor’s bluntness. But now, he found it somewhat charming. Pulling out his phone, he showed Connor multiple messages from North talking about how “attractive” Nines is.

“Listen, normally after barging in on my neighbor while they’re naked, which doesn’t happen often by the way, I’d try to ignore you as much as possible,” Sighing, he put the phone down, grabbing both of Connor’s shoulders, “But I swear to God you need to help me with North. If she talks about your brother and how cute he is one more time I think I’m going to lose my mind.”

At this, Connor visibly relaxed. Opening his door more, he allowed for Markus to enter. Closing the door behind him, Connor let out a gigantic sigh.

“Trust me, the feeling is mutual. Nines won’t stop talking about her and how she’s ‘ruining his perfect, stoic exterior.’”

Markus laughed a little at that one, and Connor swore that he could _feel_ the butterflies in his stomach. _At least he knew where that expression came from now._

“So what are we going to do?”

Connor hummed, perplexed. “Well, neither of them are going to talk to the other _willingly,_ ” He tapped his finger on the kitchen counter, thinking, “We could always trick them.”

Markus tilted his head slightly, unsure of what he was planning. “What do you mean?”

“You could call North to meet you somewhere while I call Nines and tell him to meet at the same place so they’ll be forced to talk to each other.”

Markus nodded his head, finally getting what Connor was proposing. “How do we know that they won’t just leave?”

Connor’s eyes darted around the room, figuring out a solution. Once he had one, he jumped up slightly. “We could make the place _here_. You could tell North that we’re hanging out here while I call Nines to tell him to come back over to help me fix my bathroom door.”

Markus flushed a little at the last line, feeling the warm embrace of embarrassment embrace him. “I said I’d pay to fix it,”

“It’s just a lie, Markus.”

“Oh, right.”

Connor giggled a bit at him and Markus felt like he was ascending to heaven. Honestly, he would die a happy man if he could hear Connor laugh just one more time. It took them about ten more minutes to come up with their entire plan, and it took five minutes for both North and Nines to show up. North came in about two minutes, as his apartment wasn’t that far from hers, and the three of them hung out for a little bit. Nines was more annoyed that he had to come back, and he even grumbled something about Connor being an “ungrateful brat.” He couldn’t really tell, though, as there was too much noise in the background.

The light sound of someone knocking at the door alerted Connor that Nines was finally there. When he walked over to the door North poked her head up from the couch, trying to see who was there. The door opened to reveal a rather unamused Nines, but after seeing North and Markus on the couch, his face quickly turned sour. Before he could say anything, Connor pulled him into the apartment and Markus got up, shoving him down to sit next to North.

Both Markus and Connor stood in front of them, looking equally agitated. Connor pointed a finger at the two of them, almost as if scolding a child.

“You two,” He said, waving his finger in front of them, “Need to get over this weird little crushing business. You’re grown adults and we’re both tired of having to hear you complain.”

“Connor, what the fuck—“

North couldn’t even get a full sentence out, as Markus’ glare silenced her.

“Either _you_ tell him about your feelings, or I’ll tell him everything you told me.”

Not bothering to say anything else, Connor and Markus headed towards the door, getting ready to leave. Before they shut the door, Connor poked his head through, an eyebrow raised.

“By the way, we’ll know if you leave without saying anything. So _start talking._ ”

With that, he slammed the door behind him.

* * *

 

It was about an hour after tricking North and Nines into talking to each other, and Markus and Connor were currently hanging out at Markus’ place. They both decided that it was better to stick close to those two, just in case they tried to leave. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as awkward as Connor thought it would’ve been. Markus was an easy person to talk to, and it was probably due to his kind nature.

Their conversations ranged from hoping that Nines and North would get together to “I really hope they’re not making out on my new couch.” Of course, Connor was still painfully awkward, and it wasn’t easy to get a sentence out without the sensation of fear in the pit of his stomach, but Markus didn’t seem to mind.

At the two hour mark, Connor finally got a message from Nines. When he noticed the name lit brightly across the screen, he called for Markus, so they both could see how it went:

**[Nines]**

**Nines, 5:01pm:** You should consider yourself lucky that I won’t kill you.

 **Me, 5:02pm:** Does that mean that it was a success?

 **Nines, 5:05pm:** We’re going on a date on Saturday.

 **Nines, 5:05pm:** Happy?

After reading that line both Markus and Connor cheered, expressing their relief of never having to hear the complaints about how the other person would never like them back. When Markus glanced over at Connor’s happy figure, he felt his heart clench. He looked so handsome like this, with a smile so wide that he could see tiny dimples forming under the curve of his lips.

Committing that sight to memory, Markus thought that maybe, _just maybe,_ he’d finally have the courage to ask him out.

After all, if Nines and North could do it, why couldn’t he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the only time markus and connor will put aside their awkward crushes is when nines and north annoy them into doing so
> 
> i promise that more connor/markus is coming up, i just needed to flesh this part out bc i didn't want north/nines to feel unauthentic (of course, they'll be sprinkled in bc it's important for what i want to do next)
> 
> comments are appreciated!


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi this has minor meteor garden 2018 spoilers, just to let you know. i love this show so much that i wanted to add it in, hope that's cool (i don't think it's t h a t big of spoilers, though)
> 
> also, connor is a barista at starbucks and i promise this is useful for later chapters

About two weeks after Nines and North finally confessed to one another, Connor was happy to say that he hadn’t heard a single complaint from either of them. A couple of conversations in the hallway also informed him that Markus also, was free of their drama. It was a couple of great weeks too, since Connor was finally coming out of his shell and could _actually_ hold a conversation with Markus that lasted for more than five minutes. Even at his work, Starbucks, which he despised, mainly because customers were extremely _rude,_ he got a bonus. So, it was safe to say that Connor’s life was going great, spectacular, even.

Everything _was_ fine, until Connor got a call from a very distressed North who, although he couldn’t understand much due to the loud sobs that came out of her mouth, could get _one_ thing out:

_“Nines is a douchebag and I swear to God I’m gonna cut off his dick.”_

That’s why Connor was currently at a 7-Eleven at eight at night, buying an unhealthy amount of ice cream and chips. Normally, he wouldn’t condone eating so much junk food at night, but he also didn’t want to face North’s sad wrath without a gift, as he was currently in an unlucky position to look _almost identical_ to Nines. On his way to the cash register he noticed a travel sized amount of tissues by the counter. Deciding that he’d better be safe than sorry, he grabbed five packs and headed to the cashier, who seemed to judge his spread of food, but also had a sympathetic look on her face. After purchasing everything and thanking the cashier, Connor quickly made his way back to the apartment building, jogging up the stairs and to her apartment. He kicked the door as a form of knocking, as his arms were occupied with a rather large paper bag filled with slightly melted ice cream, a variety of chips, a concerning amount of tissues, and two bottles of cheap white wine.

A couple of seconds later a disheveled North came into view, her eyes red and puffy and her nose raw from rubbing at it too much. Seeing the giant bag brought a confused look to her face. Smiling, Connor shifted the bag slightly.

“You sounded sad on the phone, and I think it’s only proper to bring comfort food.”

North’s features relaxed. Shuffling to the side, she allowed Connor to enter her apartment. 

Connor wasn’t sure if it was because the garbage can was already filled with tissues and other miscellaneous trash, but her living room was _littered_ with used, wadded up tissues. Looking up at her TV he noticed her screen brightly lit up with whatever show she was watching paused. It seemed like it was some type of romance show, but he wasn’t quite sure. Moving towards her kitchen area, Connor put down the bag, pulling out the contents of it.

“I’m not sure what you like so I just bought a variety of things,” He pulled out the two bottles of wine, “And from all of the depressing moments I had while at university, I discovered that wine is a great reliever of sadness.”

North snorted, wiping away any excess tears from her cheeks. “You trying to get me drunk? Couldn’t you have at least splurged on some red wine?”

He laughed, pointing a finger at her. “Hey. I work at a sad job that doesn’t pay well, be glad that I could _afford_ wine.”

While he unpacked everything else and recycled the bag, North went to grab two wine glasses and poured an extreme amount of alcohol into both glasses. Connor made a concerned face, to which North scoffed, sipping on her wine.

“Relax, I’ll be fine.”

Instead of pushing the topic further, Connor went to grab two spoons, one carton of ice cream, and a bag of chips, and sat down on her couch, pushing away some of the tissues littering the table. When North finally sat down with him, he looked at her, concern written all over his face.

“So,” He began, clearing his throat, “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

North sighed, grabbing a tissue to prepare herself. “It’s just that, after going on four dates, I’d think that we were dating, right?”

Connor nodded his head, slightly hesitant to hear the rest. Once she took a shaky breath, she continued:

“Well, apparently _Nines_ doesn’t think so. We were on on a date and we bumped into one of his friends, and instead of introducing me as his ‘girlfriend’ or ‘significant other’, he called me his ‘friend’, and that wouldn’t have bothered me, but when I asked him about it, he had the audacity to say ‘I was unaware that we are dating’.”

Connor took a deep breath, already cursing his brother for being so socially awkward when it came to relationships. Hesitantly, he placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in, rubbing her shoulder awkwardly. Luckily, she didn’t seem to mind, as she cuddled herself into his side, sniffling miserably.

“Well, he’s not the brightest when it comes to relationships. Just give it some time and I’m sure he’ll come back and you can sort out that mess.”

She only mumbled in reply, not bothering to look up. He sighed, holding her tighter, occasionally rubbing her arm soothingly. They sat there, huddled together, for a few minutes. Only the occasional sniffle would be heard from her. The silence was soon interrupted by the muffled sound of her voice. Connor strained his ears to listen, but he couldn’t tell what she was saying.

“What?” He asked, pulling away slightly to see her face.

“I’m sorry I think I got snot and tears on your shirt,”

Connor looked down, and sure enough, there was a wet stain where her face had been resting. Although he wasn’t sure whether or not it _was_ snot, that wasn’t the main concern right now. From the couple of months he’d known North, he learned very quickly that she was one of the toughest people he knew. She was blunt and sometimes harsh, and was quick to bounce back from nearly anything. Because of this, it was shocking to see her in such a distressed state.

“You don’t need to apologize. We have a washing machine for a reason.” Connor said, rubbing her arm soothingly.

North huffed out a laugh, burying her face back into his side. As he continued to stroke her shoulder, Connor looked around the room. He noted the brightly lit TV paused at what seemed to be a couple bantering. Looking back at North, he had a quizzical look on his face.

“What’re you watching?”

She let out a confused hum before lifting her head to follow his line of sight. “Oh, it’s called Meteor Garden,” She shifted a bit so she could face the screen comfortably, “I was looking for a romcom to cheer me up and I got too invested into it.”

Connor laughed, which earned him a punch to the shoulder. Picking up a bottle of wine from the table, he handed it to North, who raised an eyebrow.

“Well? Get me caught up and let’s watch. Also,” He gestured vaguely to the spread of unhealthy foods in front of them, “If we’re going all out, we may as well order a pizza, too.”

* * *

 

Markus honestly felt like the biggest asshole right now. He had to work overtime because someone didn’t show up for their shift and he didn’t want to leave them short-handed. When he was on his break, he noticed a couple of texts from North, and seeing phrases like “fucking asshole” and “can die in a hole” didn’t exactly seem like a conversation that would be short. So he left his break without responding, but now looking at the notifications on his phone, he felt even worse that he missed three voice messages from her as well.

**[Homicidal]**

**Homicidal, 4:52pm:** nines is a fucking asshole and i hate him

**Homicidal, 4:52pm:** he can die in a hole

Tapping the first voice memo, he brought his phone up to his ear, listening closely.

_“Hey Markus, I know that you’re busy but I really need to vent to someone. I was just with Nines, you know, on a date, and we bumped into one of his friends. Instead of introducing me as his girlfriend, he said that I was his friend. When I asked him about it, he said he was, ‘unaware that we were dating’. Honestly, I have a right to feel angry, right?”_

Markus sighed, he thought that the two of them were getting along. Tapping the next one, he anxiously listened:

_“You know, maybe I was a little too hard on him, I mean, it’s not like we talked about it much. But I figured that after a handful of dates and having our first kiss would’ve meant that I was more than ‘just a friend’.”_

Listening to the second message made Markus’ heart break. She sounded so sad and confused, with a hint of anger. From the sniffling sounds and breaks in her voice, he could tell that she’d been crying. Clicking the third message, he took a deep breath and listened:

_“I’m sorry for laying this all out for you, especially since you’re working today, but I could really go for a long ass hug and eating until my stomach explodes. Text me when you’re done.”_

Markus went to text her, saying that he was finally off work and was on his way. While walking back to the apartments, he hadn’t heard a response from her, making him even more anxious. When he was finally back, he sped walked his way to her apartment, knocking on the door. A loud call saying that it was unlocked allowed him to enter.

The first thing that he was hit by was the _smell._ He knew that North said she wanted to eat a bunch of food, but it smelt like a mix of pizza, wine, and tears. Cautiously, he walked over to the living room, where he was met with a surprise.

“Hello?”

North grabbed the TV remote and paused the show, looking over the back of the couch. Another pang of guilt hit him when he saw how puffy and red her face was. When Connor turned around, his eyes also slightly red, Markus felt even more confused.

The room was littered with tissues, half-empty boxes of pizza, cartons of melting ice cream, and, what he found most disturbing, two bottles of wine, one completely empty and the other almost a fourth gone. Hearing the sniffling from the couch made him even more worried.

“What’s happening? Why are you both crying?”

North said nothing, motioning for him to come and sit down. With a look of concern gracing his features, he obliged, sitting down on the other side of North, bending down slightly so he could see her face. He could _smell_ the wine emanating off of the both of them. After taking a couple of shaky breaths, she finally spoke:

“You weren’t answering my texts so I called Connor since I figured you were busy,” She pointed towards the TV, which showed a scene of the two main characters in what seemed to be a serious argument, “Now we’re watching Meteor Garden because I thought it would just be funny but it turns out that it’s also sad but we’re already too deep to turn back now.”

He nodded his head, taking a minute to comprehend what she was saying, as her words were slightly slurred, probably due to the amount of wine they consumed. Markus was still slightly confused about why Connor was crying. When he turned towards the man, he was met with a defensive look.

“What? It was a sad moment! Si went to London because he didn’t know that Lei and Shancai aren’t dating!”

Markus blinked, trying to process what just came out of Connor’s mouth. “I have no idea who you’re talking about.”

Before Connor could clarify, North shushed them both, the remote in her hand. “Just watch. You’ll get it.”

For the next couple of hours they all watched Meteor Garden in near silence, with the occasional question from Markus and a matching answer from Connor. Eventually they ended up on the seventeenth episode, where the main characters, Shancai and Si, were standing on a bridge, with Shancai about to turn away from him. Si began his monologue as she stood there, listening.

_“I like you. I don’t know why. Even I’m surprised by how much I like you.”_

Markus could hear the sniffling from the other two, but he decided to not say anything.

_“No matter where I go, you’re the only person that I see.”_

Si was then interrupted by another man, before he continued his speech.

_“I know I’m annoying. If you want to run away, I’ll chase after you.”_

Markus scoffed at the cheesiness, earning a harsh shush from North and a glare from Connor.

_“If you run to Mars, I’ll go there too.”_

That scene seemed to get North, as tears began to stream down her cheeks. It was obvious that Connor was trying to hold it in, but that was a battle he was losing very quickly. The two of them crying threw Markus into a bit of a panic and, without thinking, he quickly got in between them, wrapping his arms around both of their shoulders and pulling them in. On one side, he could feel North slack against him, completely relaxed. On the other side, he felt Connor stiffen under his hold, which made him wonder if he overstepped his boundaries, but then he felt Connor relax, probably due to the amount of wine that he consumed.

Being in the middle of two drunk, sobbing messes wasn’t the _best_ feeling in the world, but unfortunately for Markus, they were _his_ drunk, sobbing messes and that meant that he needed to make sure they were alright. He felt Connor mumbling something into his shoulder, the vibrations sending shock waves throughout his body.

“Did you say something?”

Connor put his chin on Markus’ shoulder, clearly not afraid of how close their faces were. “I said,” He slurred out, his breath hitting Markus’ cheek, “I wish I had a boyfriend like Daoming Si.”

Markus felt his eyebrow twitch, a twinge of jealously firing through him. “Why? He’s such an asshole to her. Is that what you want?”

Connor’s head lifted from Markus’ shoulder, and an unreadable expression came across his face. It looked like a mix of annoyance, sadness, and something else Markus couldn’t describe.

“He wasn’t always an ass, it’s just the way he talks. Also, he cares for her so much, and he does everything to make her happy.”

Connor slumped back down onto Markus’ shoulder. “I don’t want someone who’s a dick. I want someone who cares for me.”

Markus felt a little sadness in his chest. Was he not good enough for Connor’s attention? Before he could press it further, he felt his shoulder growing heavier. Looking at Connor, he noticed the man had dozed off, drooling a bit on his shoulder. Sighing, he gently moved away from the two of them, lifting Connor up and placing his hand on the other man’s waist, making sure he wouldn’t fall.

Heading out the door, he made sure to lock it with the spare key and carried Connor back to his apartment, and he even made sure to lock the door once he left, since Connor never seemed to do it himself.

Once Markus was back in his own home, he flopped down onto his bed, thinking of ways he could get Connor’s attention.

Maybe it was time he seriously told Connor his feelings.

* * *

The next morning Connor awoke to the sound of knocking hammering through his head. Opening his eyes, he winced at the bright light coming through the apartment’s cheap curtains. Groggily, he stood up and stumbled over to the door, his head pounding and his inner monologue telling him about how stupid he was to drink that much.

Once he finally got to the door he was surprised to see that no one was there. As he was about to turn away, Connor noticed a white spot on the front of his door. Peering over, he noticed one flower taped to the door: a gardenia. Peeling off the tape, he stared at the flower in confusion. Heading back to his bedroom, he fumbled for his phone, searching up what a gardenia meant. When he read the results, Connor felt his eyes widen slightly.

_Gardenia: a symbol of secret love_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Connor is confused about how he got home and why there's a gardenia taped to his door
> 
> comments are appreciated!


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha it's been a while. hopefully you like conkus just as much as i do

It was a couple days after receiving the gardenia, and Connor was even more confused than he had been previously. Ever since the first flower, more were appearing in its place. The second one came after he was invited to North’s along with Markus and Nines to watch some movie, and as much as he loved that North and Nines had made up, he didn’t appreciate the both of them cuddling up while the other two boys sat in awkward silence. Connor made some comment about how disgusting they are, which prompted a dumb argument between the two brothers, and the phrases, “ugly printer fuck-up” and “sad excuse for a human” were used _too_ many times. Although he was _deeply_ entranced in his stupid sibling argument, he also noticed that both Markus and North were silently laughing the entire time, trying to not make them any angrier. The next day he found another flower taped to his door, this time a green rose, and a quick google search told him that it’s a messenger of cheerfulness. After staring at it for a few more minutes, he placed the rose in a vase with the gardenia sitting next to it. He would’ve spent the entire day thinking about who could’ve sent the flowers, but he had work to do. So for the rest of the day Connor kept them in the back of his mind, not quite leaving but not entirely taking up his thoughts.

A couple of hours at his job already made Connor want to quit. He already didn’t like working at Starbucks, but being the shift supervisor made it so much worse. He honestly didn’t know what was worse: listening to the customers complaints or listening to the employees complaints. If it weren’t for his need for food, shelter, and his pride, then Connor would’ve quit his job and lived with his brothers and make them pay for everything. So instead of feeling inferior to his brothers, he grit his teeth and continued to work harder for that bonus.

Of course, it seemed that Connor couldn’t even focus on his job today, as once he clocked in, he was told by the manager that they were down a few people, and he’d need to act as a barista of sorts today. He knew what to _do,_ but it had been so long that Connor honestly couldn’t remember where to even start. So when the morning rush hour began, he was not prepared _at all_. Honestly, he had no idea how he survived that without messing up anyones order. He did, however, bump into a couple of his coworkers in the process of making the orders, which earned him a couple of glares.

Once the clock struck 11:30am everyone had disappeared. It was almost magic of how quickly the crowds had disappeared. Breathing a sigh of relief, Connor started on cleaning the counters of all the spilt coffee and caramel mess. Just as he was about to take his break, the sound of the door opening and the chill of the freezing weather alerted him of a customers presence. Not bothering to look up, he walked over to the cash register.

“Welcome to Starbucks, what can I get you?”

“Wow, I didn’t think you could look _any_ more handsome, guess I was wrong.”

Hearing a familiar female voice, Connor’s head whipped up, internally groaning when he saw North’s gleeful face. Normally, he would’ve been fine, maybe even tease her back and probably spell her name wrong, but when he noticed Markus’ figure standing right next to her, it made Connor want to either run away or faint on the spot. Instead of doing either of those options, he decided to handle the situation like the grown-up he was:

“I swear to God I’ll make your life a living hell. How did you know I work here?”

Okay, maybe he handled it like a teenage boy, but he tried.

“Can’t I just like coffee?” She inquired, the smirk on her face growing bigger.

When Connor didn’t respond she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “You’re right. Nines told me you work here.”

Connor took a deep breath, trying to quell the thoughts of wanting to kill his brother. Putting on his “customer service” face, he smiled politely.

“So, are you here to order something or are you wasting my time?”

North brought a hand up to her chin, as if she were deep in thought. She hummed, tilting her head from side to side. Connor was forced to stand there, watching her eating up his time while Markus sent him an apologetic look. Finally, she spoke up:

“Okay, I’ll take a venti iced americano.”

Connor stared blankly at her, not even picking up a cup. “It’s literally below freezing outside. You want an _iced_ coffee?”

“Don’t judge what I drink. I’m giving you the money I _earned_ from working hard.”

Connor shook his head, pulling out a cup and writing her order down. “You’re lucky that it’s near impossible to misspell ‘North’.”

Once he was done writing down her order he looked over at Markus. Flashing a smile, he rested his hands on the register. “What about you?”

North swatted Markus’ chest, snorting. “Oh please, Markus doesn’t drink—“

“I’ll have a tall mocha,” He said, interrupting his friend.

Connor nodded, pulling another cup out and writing Markus’ order on it. While he was busying himself with that, North looked over at Markus skeptically, her eyebrow raised so high it nearly hit her hairline. He merely shrugged, looking back at Connor who was putting their order in the machine.

“So is that all?”

“Well, just one more thing,” Markus asked, leaning forward onto the counter, “When are you off?”

Connor looked at him, slight confusion crossing his features. “Two, why?”

“We’ll wait to walk back with you,”

“Oh, Markus you don’t have to—“

“Yeah, seriously Markus, that’s like three hours from now—“

“We can _wait._ ” He said, grabbing his card from his wallet and shoving it into the chip reader.

Once the transaction was complete, Connor stayed by the register for a few more seconds, before snapping out of it and moved to make their drinks. North glanced over at him, making sure that he wasn’t paying attention. When she knew he wasn’t listening, she tugged at Markus’ jacket.

“Dude, what the fuck?”

He turned his head a bit, indicating that he was listening to her. His eyes, however, were focused on the cute barista. “I’m sorry, be more specific.”

She tugged on his jacket again, this time his collar. When he stumbled down to her level, she made her voice low so Connor wouldn’t hear her.

“Listen, I get it, you wanna be Casanova and walk him back to his apartment, and honestly, that’s admirable,” She put a hand on her hip, her posture showing her exasperation, “But what makes you think that I want to waste three hours of my life here? Out of all places?”

“Because you love me and you made us hang out with you and your boyfriend for three awkward hours and this is your punishment?”

She huffed, nodding in defeat, but keeping a tight grip on his jacket. “Wait, why’d you order coffee? Last time I checked, you called it, and I quote, ‘the devil’s own tears’."

Markus’ eyes widened a bit, before he pulled away from her grip and straightened out his jacket, “Yeah, well, who comes into a coffee shop just to stand there and buy _nothing?_ ”

“Markus Manfred you literally work at Cold Stone. You don’t have money to spend on coffee, especially if you _don’t like it._ ”

Before Markus could come up with a response, a different barista called out their orders:

“I have a tall mocha for Markus and a venti iced americano for South!”

Markus had to hold in his snort at North’s expression. As they went to grab their drinks, she mumbled something about making Connor pay. Once they had their drinks they made themselves comfortable, sinking into the couches and talking about their lives and how much they disliked their jobs.

* * *

 

From that day on, it was a normal occurrence to see Markus in Starbucks everyday. At first, Connor was suspicious of why he kept coming back, but he figured that Markus always came, just not at the same time as when Connor worked. As the days went by the two of them would have casual conversations, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Sometimes their conversations would be quick, just a “hello” and “how are you” before Connor would have to get back to work. Other times they’d talk for so long the impatient customer behind Markus would “ _kindly”_ tell them to get a move on. For Connor, it was starting to get easier to talk to Markus. Of course, there wasn’t any given moment when he didn’t stumble over his words or say something stupid, but he felt much more comfortable with the other man.

Occasionally, if Markus wasn’t busy, he’d stay and walk Connor back after his shift. Those little interactions made it easier for him to talk to Markus. For Connor, it was nice to be able to talk to him and actually be somewhat normal around him. On days that the two would walk back together, Markus would occasionally talk about how he wanted to be an artist, just like his father. He talked about how he felt he could express himself better through his art rather than just voicing his thoughts. Once they had stopped by a flower shop, a display of sunflowers lighting up the rather dreary scene the weather was painting. Markus had brought up how he wished he could capture this image, but his painting would fail to capture the beautiful contrast.

_“Well, I’ve never seen your art, but if anyone could find the beauty in such a depressing place, I’m sure it’d be you.” Connor countered, not bothering to look away from the flowers._

_He didn’t have to look to know that Markus was grinning from cheek to cheek._

Sometimes the two would talk about how their day was at their jobs. Connor didn’t like to complain about his job, since it _does_ keep a roof over his head, but some customers felt the need to be rude to someone who’s just trying to do their job. He would tell Markus about the occasional sneer at his job and how some customers would say that _they_ could do it better. Markus, for the most part, enjoyed his job. After all, he saw many children with happy faces and there was a very slim chance of someone being sad when in an ice cream shop.

Today, however, Connor had brought up a different topic, one that they didn’t necessarily talk about. He’d been silent the entire walk back, and Markus knew that he had something on his mind.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Connor turned towards him, a confused look on his face. “What do you mean?”

He rolled his eyes, playfully shoving his shoulder. “C’mon, Connor. I know something’s wrong, what’s up?

He took a second to think about it, deciding whether or not it was worth telling Markus. Eventually he sighed, crossing his arms.

“It’s just, I’m,” He tried to find the right words to express his thoughts, “I’m confused.”

Markus nodded his head, gesturing with his hand to continue. Connor sighed once again, running a hand through his hair.

“It’s just, for the past couple of weeks, someone’s been taping flowers to my door.”

Markus tensed up a bit, but thankfully Connor wasn’t paying attention. “Well, maybe you have a secret admirer.”

Connor scoffed, waving his hand in the air as if to dismiss the thought. The action made Markus deflate a bit, unsure of why Connor would so easily toss away the thought. “What’s with the scoff?”

“Markus, why would I have a secret admirer?”

“Why _wouldn’t_ you?”

Connor shook his head. He laughed but it wasn’t filled with joy as it usually was. “Why would someone spend their free time taping one flower to my door everyday? Wouldn’t they get tired of it?”

Markus tilted his head, and the other man swore that he looked like a kicked puppy. “Do you not like the flowers?”

He took a minute before responding. “I like them, I just don’t understand why someone would go through all that trouble for me. I just wish—“

Connor cut himself off, not sure of how to finish that sentence. Taking a deep breath, he tried again. “I just wish I knew who it was.”

The rest of the walk was silent, with Markus seemingly in his own head and Connor being unsure of how to start another conversation. As usual, Markus walked him up to his door, saying his goodbye and promptly walking back out, saying that he had a late shift tonight and needed to go. As Connor shut the door he sighed, leaning against the door and looking back at the flowers sitting on top of his counter. Walking over to them, he sighed, wondering if what Markus said was right, if he _truly_ had a secret admirer.

Selfishly, he really hoped that it was Markus, but in his heart he knew that there was no way that he could actually like him. Hell, he didn’t know it Markus was even _into_ men, let alone _him._

* * *

 

“So, let me get this straight,” North started, staring at the vase, which now held a wonderful array of flowers inside of it, “You’ve been getting flowers sent to you for the past week or so, and you’re just telling me _now?_ ”

He rolled his eyes, nudging her slightly with his foot. “Yes, because whenever something happens I need to drop _everything_ to tell you.”

“Yeah, I thought that was the point of this friendship,”

Connor let out a huff, his gaze slowly moving towards the flowers. Tilting his head, he didn’t bother looking at North. “Do you know who could’ve done this?”

He could hear the sarcasm practically dripping in her voice. “You don’t?”

He whipped his head towards her. “If I _knew_ I wouldn’t be _asking._ ”

“You really are dense, you know that?”

He threw his hands in the air, an exasperated sigh coming out of his mouth. North grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him closer to gain his attention.

“Use your brain: who’s the one person who constantly finds an excuse to talk to you?”

Connor knitted his eyebrows together in confusion, not quite sure there was any sort of person. When he didn’t respond, North groaned, throwing her head back and breathing in before responding.

“Oh my god Connor it’s Markus. Markus is sending you these flowers. It’s his stupid way of saying that he likes you.”

Connor let out a laugh at that one. Moving her hands away from his face, he sunk back into his couch. “Yeah, right. Why would Markus like me?”

“He walks you back from work every day.”

“It’s not _every_ day.” He stated, crossing his arms in annoyance.

“Okay, then why does he go out of his way to get coffee from you?”

“Because it’s the staple of many American’s mornings?”

North had an unamused look on her face. “Con, he doesn’t even _like_ coffee.”

He paused a bit, thinking about what she said before replying with: “We sell tea, too.”

She let out an annoyed yell, covering her face with her hands. Peeking from under her hands, she looked at him. “Just, next game night, watch him carefully, okay?”

Before Connor could even reply there was a knock at his door. Walking over to open it, he noticed no one was there, and a sunflower was taped to door yet again. However this time there was a small note attached to the flower. Unfolding it he read it aloud so North could hear:

_“It’s a rather depressing winter, isn’t it? Good thing you make it just as bright as these sunflowers brighten up Detroit.”_

He heard North scoff from the living room. “Only Markus would write something that cheesy.”

Connor didn’t pay attention to her snide remarks, as he could only hear his heart beating loud in his ears. As much as he didn’t want to get his hopes up, the encouragements from North made him truly begin to believe that Markus could actually like him. Holding back his smile, he turned towards North, who was currently looking at him with a smile on his face. 

Although her encouragements filled him with hope, he thought that he’d ask just one question:

“Does Markus even like guys?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments are appreciated :)


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi it's game night but also with some plot
> 
> also, if you couldn't tell, i really love the game grumps and half of these game nights are inspired by their videos

A couple of days and a few flowers later, Connor was getting ready to head over to Kara and Luther’s apartment for the next game night, since they had taken Alice to a friend’s house. A text from North told him they were playing Jeopardy, and that his brother Nines would be joining them. As Connor was starring at his vase of flowers, some of which he needed to get rid of, a knock on the door gained his attention.

Once he opened it, he was standing face to face with Markus, a glowing smile on the other man’s face.

“Hey, I thought we could walk over together,” He said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Connor offered an endearingly lopsided smile. Nodding his head, he quickly grabbed his phone and keys and closed the door. Before he could even take a step towards Kara and Luther’s apartment Markus cleared his throat.

“Don’t forget to lock the door.”

“You know,” he started, shoving his key in the lock and twisting it, “I’m not _that_ dumb.”

Markus shrugged his shrugged his shoulders, as if he didn’t believe him. Connor clicked his tongue.

“Listen, not everyone just goes and barges into someone’s apartment.”

“Not true,” Markus shot back, walking with the other man towards their friend’s apartment.

“Oh really? Who?”

“Burglers.”

Connor stared at him, blinking a bit before responding, “Even if my door were locked, if someone had the intention to break in and steal my things, they would just bust down the door.”

“True,” Markus started, a smile playing on his lips, “But you’d be making their job _much_ easier.”

Connor scoffed, rolling his eyes at his comment. Their conversation had ended just as they’d reached the apartment, and just as he went to knock on the door it was quickly ripped open, startling both boys. A very unamused North looked at the two of them, almost exasperated.

“You’re the last two to make it. Are you just always late?”

Markus didn’t bother replying, he just shoved past her, snickering a bit when she yelled at him. Connor, on the other hand, looked at her for a minute.

“Were you just standing at the door waiting for us?”

North rolled her eyes, wrapping her arm around his torso and pulling him into the apartment. “Now, now, just go sit down!”

As North shoved him Connor gave an awkward wave of his hand to the rest of the group. He was surprised at first that Nines was here before him, noting that he lived farther away, but he realized that his brother probably spent the night with North.

He was about to sit next to Nines before North shoved beside him, hoping over the couch to sit next to him. Nines’ arm wrapped around her instinctively, sending her a small, rare smile. It was both cute and also nausea inducing. Looking around the room, he noticed that the only available seat was next to Markus on the bean bag. Taking a calming breath, he walked over towards the man and sat down on the ground beside him. He was hoping that nobody would talk about it, but unfortunately luck wasn’t on his side.

“Connor, you don’t have to sit on the floor, you can take the bean bag.” Markus offered, beginning to get up.

Connor frantically waved his hands, dismissing the idea. “No, that’s okay! I’m fine sitting down here.”

Markus tilted his head, a confused look on his face. “Are you sure? I can always—“

“For Christ’s sake just share the damn bag,” North said, obviously amused with them.

Connor sent a glare towards her before looking back up at Markus, who seemed to be just as flustered as him.

“I mean,” he began, patting the spot beside him, “I don’t mind.”

He took a moment to consider his options before slowly getting up and sitting down beside Markus. If the other man took note of Connor’s stiff posture, he didn’t say anything as he looked at Luther.

“So, are we getting started?”

The giant man smiled, nodding his head. Looking over towards Kara who was currently engrossed in a conversation with Nines, he took initiative and handed out the other two controllers, saving one from himself.

“Since Jeopardy is a three player game, we’re gonna split up into three teams,”

Connor groaned quietly, mumbling something about the last game night and how that went. Markus had to hold in a giggle at the other boy’s distain.

“Kara and I will be a team,” Luther pointed towards Nines and North, “they’ll be a team, and that leaves Markus and Connor to be the last team.”

Connor looked at him before gesturing towards North and Nines. “They were a team last time, why do they get to be one again?” He paused before sheepishly turning towards Markus, “No offense, I’m not saying that I don’t want to be your partner.”

Markus held up his hands. “None taken.”

Nines smirked. “You should’ve been here earlier, maybe you could’ve bribed him.”

North smacked his chest lightly. “Babe, don’t give him ideas for next time, I still want him to lose.”

“You’re both rotten people.”

None of them could get in another word before the telltale music of Jeopardy came on, signaling that the game had started. They all quickly created new accounts and hopped into the first match. The first categories that were assigned were “hip-hop and rap,” “water around the world,” “game time,” “world of colors,” “where the wild things are,” and “inventors and inventions.” Kara and Luther were chosen first and they chose “inventors and inventions” for $200.

_“The world almanac’s list of inventions goes from the adding machine to a 1913 improvement of this fastener.”_

The first team to have buzzed in was Nines and North, who correctly answered “what is the zipper?” It was only the beginning of the game but Connor was beginning to lose hope quickly, remembering just how awfully good they were as a team. The next three questions were all in the “inventors and inventions” category before Kara and Luther had finally stole a question from the winning team. Thankfully, Luther had chosen the “world of colors” category, which housed the statement: _“In Portuguese: laranja.”_

Before the other two teams could nab it, Markus quickly pressed the button and chose the answer: “what is orange?” When Connor looked over at him, he laughed.

“I guessed.”

As much as Connor wanted to chew Markus out for pressing the button when he didn’t know the answer, he _did_ get it right, so he decided to keep quiet. The two had picked the next “world of colors” question for $400, which read, _“in Spanish: rojo.”_ Markus again pressed the button quicker than the rest, answering the question correctly and gaining an annoyed groan from Nines.

“Could you let someone else answer?"

Connor glared at his brother. “Shut up, you answered three questions in a row.”

Nines chose to not respond, instead focusing his energy back onto the TV, where Markus had chosen “hip-hop and rap” to keep the game interesting. The question itself wasn’t surprising, in fact, it was quite easy. What _didn’t_ make sense, however, was the fact that Nines had buzzed in and answered _correctly._ North didn’t even need to tell him anything. Once he felt his brother’s quizzical gaze on him he rolled his eyes.

“Quit staring. You’d have to be living under a rock to not get that one correct.”

“Exactly you Stone Age bitch, how do you know mainstream media?”

“Fuck off.”

Markus snorted, turning his head away to keep his composure. Kara and Luther merely smiled at the interaction, finding just as much amusement as Markus.

The first round had ended with North and Nines in the lead with $8,550, Kara and Luther trailing behind them with $3,400, and Connor and Markus with $1,200. Although Connor wasn’t nearly as mad as he was while they were playing Wheel of Fortune, he was still considerably angry. This time, not at his partner, but at his stupid brother who was currently looking at him with the most smug look imaginable.

The next rounds categories were “PG movie classics,” “mountains,” “ticker-tape parades,” “produce,” brand logos,” and “USA: the first 100 years.” Nines had sighed outwardly on the last one, causing Luther to look at him.

“What? Do you hate America that much?”

“No,” He said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Connor is just _extremely_ good at American history."

“Maybe you should’ve payed attention in history class rather than staring blankly at the wall."

“Excuse you, need I remind you that I’m superior in all other areas of knowledge.”

“ _‘I’m superior in all other areas of knowledge.’_ ” Connor mumbled, mocking his brother.

Markus bursted out laughing before quickly silencing himself at Nines’ glare. Instead, since him and Connor had the first move, he went and chose “USA: the first 100 years” for $400

_“This 1803 transaction doubled the territory of the U.S.."_

Before they were allowed to buzz in, Markus handed Connor the controller, knowing that he had the answer. They were the first to press their button, and Connor correctly answered, “what is the Louisiana Purchase?” The pair went on to win the entire column of “USA: the first 100 years,” causing Nines and North to become agitated while Kara and Luther praised Connor’s knowledge on American history. Markus wrapped his arm around Connor’s shoulders, whooping and hollering in victory. Connor’s checks lit up, almost glowing a shade of red. He blushed an even darker red when Markus didn’t move away his arm.

He didn’t need to look at North to see her giving him a knowing smile.

The game continued on well until Connor’s phone buzzed. At first he didn’t pay any attention to it, figuring that it was some spam email that he would get occasionally. However, when the buzzes started to go off non-stop he finally tore his eyes away from the screen, handing the controller back to Markus before picking up his phone. 

**[gavinreed wants to send you a message]**

**gavinreed:** Hey, it’s Gavin from high school

 **gavinreed:** I’m in Detroit, can we meet up?

Markus seemed to notice the troubled look on Connor’s face, as he tapped his shoulder with the hand that held him close.

“Hey, you okay?”

Connor nodded his head, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. Rather than pressing on, Markus nodded with him, slowly turning back to the game. Unfortunately, Connor couldn’t get his mind back into the game, and they ended up falling by quite a bit, unable to make up the gap between them and first place. The second round had ended with Nines and North in the lead yet again with $23,350, Kara and Luther close with $20,005, and Markus and Connor falling down to a whopping $2,800. 

The game ended in the final Jeopardy when everyone betted all or nothing, causing Nines and North to lose all of their fortune, Kara and Luther winning the game, and Markus and Connor earning an extra $2,800, definitely not enough to put them in the lead. North looked over at the couple, huffing.

“I don’t know how, but you two probably cheated.”

“That’s funny coming from someone who used their phone to google all the answers.” Luther said, earning a giggle from Kara.

As North continued to accuse the others of cheating, Nines rubbed her shoulders, knowing to not get in the way of angry North.

Not too long after the game had finished everyone was saying their goodbyes and heading back to their apartments. Markus and Connor had walked back together, although this trip was relatively silent. Markus would try to talk about how next time they would beat Kara and Luther, and the best that Connor could do was let out a mumbled sound of agreement. 

When they reached their respective apartments, he looked over at the silent man. “Are you _sure_ you’re okay? You’ve been awfully quiet,"

Connor nodded, unlocking his door. “I’m just tired. Good night, Markus.

“‘Night Connor,"

With that, they both shut their doors.

* * *

 

About three hours later Markus had been working on a painting when he heard his phone go off. Walking over to it, he looked to see who messaged him so late at night.

**[Connor]**

**Connor, 12:36 am:** I know it’s late, but is there any chance I could get you to come and drive around with me?

 **Connor, 12:36 am:** I’m downstairs in my car

Markus debated with himself before responding. It _was_ late, and he had work tomorrow, but Connor never asked him to hang out, it was usually _him_ that would initiate any form of conversation. So, instead of letting this opportunity go to waste, he texted back:

**[Connor]**

**Me, 12:38 am:** I’ll be downstairs in 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooooh
> 
> comments are appreciated :)

**Author's Note:**

> comments are appreciated :)


End file.
